My post Why does Corel Draw Graphics Suite X5 feel more like beta software? explains everything im having an issue with X5. In an effort to log the issues with this software, Im asking that if your an X5 User and are having file corruption, crashes, freezes and other such fun stuff happening to you killing your time and money while in Draw or Photopaint, please post it here.
In order to keep it all clean and easy for someone at Corel to follow, please only list issues for X5 and not turn it into a discussion out of topic.
Please, there is no need to try to defend Corel here as Iv used Corel since version 4 (not X4), so thats a long time using it.
Ariel said:is as was designed (I suppose it was for prevent unwanted changes of the text)
I agree with you that it feels like grouping of text in Draw seems like it was originally designed to protect it. You're also right that I do wish grouping of text worked differently. Also though, it still seems like a bug because grouping works for curves etc to *help* the user change and manipulate multiple things. Because grouping treats text as something to protect, it seems like a bug because it's more inhibiting than helpful. When I want to protect text, I can put it in a separate layer and click the little pencil to block editting of that layer.
In other programs... the idea of grouping or parenting is to help the user with selections and processing of those grouped elements. The hierarchy that's built is meaningful and useful for manipulating the pieces as larger modular pieces. There is definitely a protective idea around grouping, but I should still be able to go into a group and edit **multiple** elements without having to rip down the structure of the groups apart... or having to edit each one individually. That's why I'd classify Draw's treatment of grouping of text more on the bug side...
... but I definitely see what you're saying... my complaints/wishes about the grouping is not something that's causing the program to break or crash.
As the thread says... I have an "issue" with this particular unexpected time wasting functionality. I've taught software testing, and user issues/bugs range from crashes and freezing all the way to... does the program do what the user expects it to do?... and that's of course related to what other programs the user is accustomed to.... etc. etc.
In this respect, it's annoying that text in PhotoPaint CAN be grouped and selected from that group using Ctrl and Shift (but not in Draw?). I would expect this same functionality in Draw too... however, PP doesn't allow the font (or even the colour) to be changed for multiple selected text objects (grouped or not)... so the user's stuck (in a different way, I'd call it another bug) and has to change each one individually also (again a huge time waster). At least in Draw, you can select multiple text objects (with Ctrl / Shift) as long as they are not grouped. That's pretty good.
However, (another bug darn it), when you select text that exists in different layers... the text won't change colour in the selected layer... but DOES change in the NON-active layer (wth). Some users wouldn't think this is a bug and may never do this type of selection... and fair enough, but when I select stuff, and the program shows it's selected, it seems reasonable to assume that I should be able to manipulate the selected stuff in a way that I'm accustomed to (eg. change the colour of selected text). It certainly shouldn't think that I have nothing selected (as it currently does for grouped text).
... darn it, I was trying to end with something positive and I ended up finding another issue.
How about this... I have faith that Corel will fix these issues and X5 will rise up to become a stable graphics package when the service pack arrives.
more bugs in PP:
when you copy something, use ctrl to flip horizontally, turn on transparency, the shape of the copied part is actually changed by what looks like 4 pixels wider.
try this:- copy a small part of a bitmap (about 12x12)- paste it right over where you got it from- use ctrl to flip it horizontally- change the transparency (via the slider in the objects docker) to anything so you can see through it- use ctrl to flip it back over the original image of itself
... it's about 4 pixels wider!
alternatively, try this for a slightly different result along the way:- copy a small part of a bitmap (about 12x12)- paste it right over where you got it from- change transparency- flip it horizontally using ctrl... everything's fine so far.- flip it back using ctrl ----> resized.
... this same auto-blending the pixels instead of just changing their alpha values occurs with vertical flipping too.
It's the flipping that does the resizing when you get out of the selected object... it gets wider or higher. It should be a **perfect mirror**.
Here's an enlarged screenshot so you can see the detail:
I found both these next bugs when making the image showing the resizing problem:
When laying down text in PP, with the text tool on, the text is in a certain desired position... but when you switch to another tool and the text is then converted to pixels, the new rasterized text is lower than it should be by about a pixel or 2
When using ctrl to move multiple objects, if you hold ctrl before the move, only one of the objects preserves the selection and is moved (wrong)... but if you hold ctrl *after* you start the move, both are moved (the correct implementation).
When you have a tool selected (eg. rectangle tool)... make a rectangle, then you want to resize, hit your hotkey for picker arrow... works fine.
... but if you pick a fill colour, and then hit the hotkey... it's stuck on rectangle tool. There are various combinations of drawing tools and things you'd do after drawing whatever... the point is that it doesn't switch to another tool for some reason. It of course works to go hit the tool icon, but the hotkey should work... regardless of the tool you're trying to switch between.
This next issue may have been around since Corel 3. When you use a 2 colour pattern to fill... the swatch that you're picking doesn't show the correct aspect ratio (not a big deal, but still silly since it's not representative of what you're actually going to get.. and it should be easy to fix and make the program tighter), and some of the swatches are horrible looking with jagged pixels off the vertical and horizontal edges of curved surfaces. Even downsampling shouldn't produce this kind of bad smaller image. Compare to the better aspect ratio (but still with really bad downsampling) in the lens effect docker... see image below. I don't have my monitor in any weird aspect ratio that would make the fill pattern look skewed like this. Also, it's not just the circular 2 colour patterns that have weird pixels sticking out... there are a few... and it's not because it's 2 colour as opposed to anti-aliased... the pixels are actually **sticking out** weirdly.
I'm probably wrong about this next issue... it's probably not a problem, but it might be.
- In PP, with the arrow picker tool, you click on an object and it goes through scale, rotate/skew, distort, and then perspective.
- However, in Draw, it doesn't go to distort or perspective... if this isn't an error it would be awesome to have. It seems like an issue because when I'm working in PP and then go over to Draw to do something and I'm expecting the image to be scalable (ok), rotatable (fine), distortable (wait a sec...), and perspectable (hmmmm... did I do something wrong... why isn't this working?). :) Maybe I did do something wrong.
PP and Draw are soooooo slow to open. I know others have mentioned this, but I wanted to offer some help (that you at Corel have already probably dealt with, but maybe not). I hope your program is written in C or C++... NOT C#. I'm not completely certain of the timing, but people on this board have been saying that the code should go back to X3... I think that's after C# and .NET came around. I'm only guessing that X4 and X5 were maybe migrated into C#? The reason this might be really bad is because C# runs on a virtual machine (like java). This is potentially bad for performance and **stability** because it adds an extra step when the code runs... I'm not an expert at C#, but I know that C++ is superior in this respect because the code gets compiled directly to machine code... instead of needing a Microsoft in-between virtual machine layer which probably heavily depends on the operating system... and how the current version of .NET runs on the operating system. Again, I'm not an expert in this area, but I think this might be something to think about. You guys at Corel probably have this well in hand though.
I looked at a setup file (workspace) and it's in xml. Why not try using a binary? I know it would might be more complicated, but way faster. With the default User Interface XML there's almost half a MB of text to parse before parsing all the other setup files... and all this before the program is loaded. If it were a binary, it would go way faster... or even try using a more simplistic text file and just index into it.
I just googled for "XML slow" and pulled up this quote from about 3 years ago:
"XML, now 10 years old, has a lot of problems. It's document-based, verbose, requires a higher payload across the network and a lot of processing once it arrives."
Davoid said: In PP, with the arrow picker tool, you click on an object and it goes through scale, rotate/skew, distort, and then perspective. However, in Draw, it doesn't go to distort or perspective... if this isn't an error it would be awesome to have.
In PP, with the arrow picker tool, you click on an object and it goes through scale, rotate/skew, distort, and then perspective. However, in Draw, it doesn't go to distort or perspective... if this isn't an error it would be awesome to have.
I agree, it should work in Draw also, kind of like a simplified one-shot envelope, and it should work on bitmaps also, like it does in competing software.
Davoid said:I looked at a setup file (workspace) and it's in xml. Why not try using a more simplistic text file and just index into it.
Some of us also wonder why not just a simple .ini file. I don't see the appeal of XML for these settings.
In fact.. the opposite, since "valid workspace not found" errors and also a magically growing user XML file have been problems for me. At one point... it had grown to 7 MB!!! Os's XML optimization tool chopped it down dramatically. Check your size...
Quick note - I found a solution to my issue, an updated thread is posted at the link embedded into my original question post.