PDF save takes forever...even regular file save takes longer

I did another Corel Repair process...with no luck.

And then...your comments (re issues with certain types of fills) made me think...
and I looked at three recent similar projects, analyzing various bitmap and layered vector elements.

I'm constantly trying to combine elements in projects, helping to reduce file sizes and minimize conflicts.
I'll combine multiple smaller bitmaps into one larger bitmap that has a smaller data size.
If possible (visually) I will change multiple vector elements into a single raster element, again, to reduce data size.

Anyway, these three recent projects are all booklets with 11 pages, and similar contents.
But two of them have a lot less bitmap components and less complicated pages...and they seem to save normally.
I guess I ignored these files because I didnt have any problems with them.

But that pointed me to this third project...the one I have been working on this past week.
And this is a booklet that has been modified and used in a few recent projects, that all have the same PDF saving problem.
The long publish time I am complaining about.

I came up with an idea to test things out...I made a copy of Page 1 of this booklet, and saved it as its own cdr file.
Then I published it to PDF...

took one second to save, and one second to publish to PDF! nice!

I added page 2...saved and published to PDF...took 2 seconds and 2 seconds.
Then added page 3...saved in 3 seconds, published in 3 seconds!

Obviously an acceptable trend...adding about 1 second with every page added to the project...
until I got to page 10... then save and publish times went from 9 seconds to a whopping 160 seconds!!

Something on page 10 was obviously causing a problem.
And after 40 minutes of pulling every element apart, splitting, grouping, welding, bitmapping, grouping bitmaps, etc...
I finally found a small vector item (actually a group of several very small vector items) that had a gradient fill applied across them all.
A fairly simple gradient, but a standard corel gradient colour fill. (not a bitmap fill or anything like that)

Once I replaced the gradient with a solid colour fill, and resaved the file, the publish time for the entire PDF was  only11 seconds!!

I am conceding that this particular issue is not so much a problem with Corel PDF publishing, but actually a problem with Coreldraw's own gradient fills.
And its my fault for not seeing that this is a project glitch related to a single project of mine.

I apologize for wasting your time, but I appreciate the replies...you helped me get to the problem! Thanks.