I work in politics, so this year is very busy for me. Corel is my primary design program, and I'm currently using version 24.2.1.446 (September 2022). It works. Couple of annoying bugs, but at least I know about them and can work around them.
I have a couple of months off and have the following questions for you experts:
1. Will be buying a new computer (current computer is Win 10, and over 8 years old, so it's long past time) -- can I just install just the build of Corel I'm currently using (24.2.1.446), or will I have to install all Corel 2023 updates and/or Corel 2024?
2. Should I at least install the updates for Corel 2023, or will it break things that will annoy me? I'm not going to have a lot of time/energy to fight through new problems until 2025.
3. Should I install Corel 2024, or will that annoy me even more?
4. Finally, can I run Corel 2023 and Corel 2024 side by side, or will 2024 replace 2023? I've been using Corel since version 2, and FAR preferred having multiple versions of Corel around, but realize that times have changed. Sigh.
Thanks for any/all advice.
Well, you're in a great place, annoying is not something you need nor something I can guarantee won't happen. I can only tell you, my experience.
I'm currently running Windows 10 Pro on an Asus main board, an Intel i9 with 64 GB of RAM, an 8GB NVidia card and a 2TB Samsung SSD.
I have CorelDRAW 2020.5, 2023, and 2024 installed on this system, the latter 2 are subscription versions.
I had been using 2023 with all the updates, I got a notice to download 2024 (25.0.0.230), I did so, and it installed as its own version and has been running much faster than 2023. My 2023 version still works but installing 2024 after 2023 was installed breaks the edit bitmap link between Draw 2023 and Photo-PAINT 2023. I however have no need to use 2023 as 2024 has performed very well.
I am working on a large sign project and had 5 different programs open simultaneously with a total of 6.6GB in memory, one being a 1.3GB Draw file, CorelDRAW, Photo-PAINT, AfterShot Pro, PaintShop Pro, Affinity Photo and a couple browser page open and email. I have edited over 1,000 images since 2024 was released. ROCK SOLID!
A bit of advice from an old guy that's worked many political campaigns all the way back to before Regan, this is not a good time, reduce your stress, if your current machine is working and is not showing signs of immanent death keep it online. Get the new machine and install 2024 there. No one pay me or you for excuses, only results and making deadlines. Good luck to you!
Thank you so much for the GREAT advice! Delighted to know that 2024 installed along side 2023 as a subscription (which I also have).... I do massive amounts of photo manipulation also, so I'm pleased to hear about your experiences with having lots of memory hog programs open. I'll take your advice and just wait to do anything until I've got the new computer going. (BTW, when I installed 2023 it broke 2020, which seriously pisses me off...never been able to get it to work again, sadly.) And, it cracks me when people ask if anyone's making money with Corel, because the answer is, uh, yeah. Hah!
From my experiance I'm sure you're going to have a busy year so always be cautious and plan some down time after the elections.
Are you using Photo-PAINT for your images?
As far as making money with CorelDRAW and Photo-PAINT, I did it since late in the version 3 cycle. I'm comfortably semi-retired now but needing to sooth my masochistic tendencies I took up photography as a hobby. My camera says I've taken 40,000 images and it inspired my wife to take up a birding hobby. Plenty of date days!
I use PhotoPAINT first, but also Photoshop CS6 and Affinity and PortraitPro and occasionally PaintShop Pro as well as some plugins. Every program has the things it does best.... Always on the lookout for new solutions! Keep thinking that I'll be retiring sooner or later, but still enjoy the political mayhem, so am still in the thick of it.
Be warned PS CS6 is problematic under Win11. In fact I have moved over to Affinity Suite for photo editing instead of CS6, though I do have a Win10 virtual machine setup with PS just in case.
IIRC prat of the problems of running PS6 were to do with also havinf Dreamweaver installed as well. So you might be lucky if its only PS, but be aware if the installation goes bad you might well have to reinstall Windows, i did , twice. So get Windows running and set restore points as you go, and just before installing PS take a backup image of your drive.
Regards new solutions, do try Luminar Neo, I'm using it a lot to rescue old film photos and its AI capabilities far exceed PS and Affinity plus it has a lot of creative tools that I haven't really explored yet.