Sometime between 12/9 and 12/13/21, I lost some of my tools (both down the side and above) and the PDFs are generating with about a 1/4 to 1/2" of additional border beyond the prescribed boundaries of the documents. I tried resetting my toolbox to default, but I don't see any difference, and I have no idea what to do about the PDFs. Incidentally, the PDF files have been huge ever since I upgraded to CorelDraw 2019. Whenever I'm doing a 12-page color newsletter, I have to have the guy that posts it dumb it down in the extreme! Before that, I could keep an online document under 20 MB at 150 dpi, but now it's over 50 MB. If I generate one at 96 dpi or below, it comes out fuzzy.
I have read that Microsoft 10 updates have been messing with a variety of programs and I have the dates (above) when it could've happened, but I don't know how to track down which update(s) might be the culprit(s). Years ago, I had an MS update screw up my PageMaker, but I knew the exact date when it happened and there were forum postings on it, so I was able to fix the problem. Thus far, I haven't found any for my issues.
It also occasionally does a bizarre thing on a 12-page newsletter, where it starts flashing little object handles all over the place and eventually, facing pages swap places (I shot a video, but it's too big to post). Every once in a while, it does more than just swap facing pages and I end up with misplaced pages all over the place. I had the same problem with the previous version and the tech had no idea what do about it, and naturally suggested the upgrade. But guess what? It's still doing it! Just not as often...so far.
Yes, Windows updates can cause the most peculiar things to happen.In this case though, It sounds more like Draw has been corrupted somehow.I suggest you try the Repair option from the suite's install routine.Regarding the PDF's getting bigger than normal, I'm pretty sure it is just an export setting.There's a number of things that can make the files grow, like for example bitmap compression.Also remember that some Draw specific effects may be rendered as bitmaps depending on your export settings.
I tried the Repair and no cigar. Reinstall from the disk?FYI, I went ahead and allowed access on the Windows Security box and checked my X8 version and the tools are all there. At least now I can see what all is missing. I tried looking under the 2019 Tools menu/Options/Tools, but the missing tools are not listed. I'm actually missing the whole Objects menu in 2019.
Wow! I just went to do as requested with the test file and saw that all of the desktop items that I had previously deleted were still there and were all stacked willy-nilly on top of each other. Wish I'd thought to take a snip tool shot of it before I re-deleted everything and saved. Anyway, that cut the Corel file size down to 138 MB (vs. the original file's 317 MB) and I made a PDF at 150 dpi, that came out to 48 MB. That's still larger than what I was getting in X8, but at least it wouldn't have to be dumbed down so ridiculously far. However, it still says there are items falling outside of all the pages and, once again, the Object docker says there is nothing on the desktop.I only stripped out a few text items in the actual document, so most of it is still there. It's actually the November 2021 issue that I had just started to change for February 2022.https://www.dropbox.com/s/n6lv6nohvfjge1g/Woofer%202022%20February%20Issue-Test.cdr?dl=0One additional thing: I noticed that all of my Corel files are listed as CorelDRAW X8 Graphics in my Windows Explorer window (under Type), regardless of which program they were created in. The documents that were created in 2019 won't open in X8, so I don't get it.
Last thing first: The reason you see all your Draw files as being X8, is because the .cdr suffix is connected with your old version.Right click a cdr, choose "Open with", click "Choose another app", select Draw 2019 from the list and make sure you check "Always use this app..." before clicking OK.I can not find any objects that fall outside the pages, and yet I get the same message you do.It appears that using "Facing pages" will trigger this warning, but I have no idea why.So there is probably nothing more to do than to make sure you don't leave stray objects outside the pages, unless you are sure they are on non-printable layers, and then simply ignore the warning.Or check "Don't check for this issue in the future" box in the PDF settings dialog. ;-)One thing I noticed in your document was that many of the text boxes were framed with a dotted red line.This indicates "overflowing text" and it appears that you have extra lines, most of the times empty, added to those text boxes.We all work in different ways but my advice is to always keep the files as clean as possible, for many different reasons, but mostly because it is easier to troubleshoot if something seems wrong.I hope I have managed to give you some useful tips and wish you good luck with your magazine.Feel free to come back if you have any further questions, preferably in a new thread, this one has become a bit difficult to navigate. :-)
Thank you, Ronny, for all your help with the above and the explanation for why all my 2019 files come up as X8 files and how to re-designate them. Since, at this point, it appears that we're wrapping this up, I opted to put this final post under the old subject. If I come up with any new questions, I'll start a new thread.
Hopefully I can manage to keep extraneous objects on a non-printable layer. If not, I might be best off saving the newsletter under a different name and stripping out the desktop items before generating my final PDFs (one for digital posting and one for printing). I'll also keep an eye out for those overflowing text boxes and keep them neat and tidy.VERY Much Appreciated!P.S. If you're not a Corel technician, you should be!
harpluster said:P.S. If you're not a Corel technician, you should be!
Thank you. I have been working with Draw for thirty years, whereof at least twenty professionally, so I guess I've picked up a few things over the years. I know the parts I use very well, while there are huge gaps in other areas.Luckily I still want to learn so if I find something interesting but don't know the answer, I like to troubleshoot until I know what's going on, if I have the time.That was how I found out about the Facing pages issue, by the way.
I actually did get a bit more help from a good Corel technician and managed to get my file size down to 110 MG after saving it as a CMX and then resaving it as a CDR. I had tried that maybe a year ago and the file came out all squirrelly, but this time it worked. The PDF generator still says there's stuff on the desktop, but the PDF went down to a miniscule 5,886 KB! I decided to clear just about everything off the desktop for this issue, as it was a tangled mess. If I can find the time, I'd like to make separate collections of the graphics that I use for the 4 seasons and another page for text boxes of various configurations that I use, depending on the amount of space I have to deal with, so I don't have to keep pulling up past issues for what I need.Again, much thanks!-Donna
harpluster said:after saving it as a CMX and then resaving it as a CDR
Could it be that there was a huge number of styles in your document perhaps?I believe there was a time when these had a bad habit of multiplying until the document got totally overloaded with styles.Not sure, just a thought since the CMX roundtrip seems to have cleaned something up.
Text styles? Hmmm...there is a stack of a couple of words that I was trying different fonts on, that I left there, so I wouldn't have to look them up, should I care to change it from issue to issue. Not that I have, as yet, but... Other than that, I haven't messed around with any other kind of styles, whatever those might be. Showing my lack of tech saavy, once again.
I'm not using styles much myself and am in no way an expert, but there are Object Styles (Styles, Style Sets but also the Default Object Properties that we all need) and Color Styles.Both these have dockers so you should be able to see if there are unnecessary styles that can be removed.Another thing you can try is to create a new document, check for styles (just out of curiosity) and then go to Tools > Save Setting As Default...In the dialog, uncheck "Document Styles", except maybe the "Default Object Properties".This should at least make new documents cleaner.