CorelDRAW X7: The Official Guide

I am writing this review without having completed reading it and without completely learning the program. Thus far this book has very thorough explanations with visuals, and a nice index to look things up in. There is a lot to learn with this program and having a book explain things is needed. I have not yet completed the book. I am starting to skip around and finding I can look things up in the index to find explanations in prior chapters. I have been reading this book color coding as I read to help me pay attention and comprehend - my coding system is: pink = tutorial; green = verbs in steps; light blue= places in the software to go to/buttons to make something happen, or outside links; yellow - objective or action sought; orange = description or definitions; purple = contingents or conditional phrases such as while, if, when... I found it helpful to learn the vocabulary associated the software by watching you tube videos to support reading this book (or any other how to). Once the basic vocabulary and orientation is down then reading is easier. I have prior versions of this software and so reading the book was/is not as painful as learning in the prior versions which were simpler. I also find it helpful to just play and explore a little without trying to read everything first. Doing so helps me know what I want to know or don't understand. The program has tricky clicks, double clicks and drags, and + keys to press so that without a book to explain things it is hard to guess what is happening or what may happen. The author has tutorials with a link to download. I have skipped most of the tutorials, but found some very useful. I may go back and to the others later. For the sake of retention, I expect myself to read/review about three to four times. Sorry, this sounds like a learning strategy review more than a book review. The book is excellent and a MUST have. I would give this book a 5 star rating.

I preordered this book back in June (might have been July), and the release date kept getting moved back. Was starting to think it was never coming out. But here it is. I really needed this book, I started with Corel Draw way back with version 2 - and worked with it through to version 8 (and the my place of employment switched to using Adobe products). I picked up a license of Corel Draw X5 home and school edition, but never really got into it. It was just a bit too different that what I remembered. Now I am planning on becoming proficient with Corel Draw once again and have a license of the new X7 that I want to learn. Which is why I wanted this book. Nowadays you usually don't get a manual with software - least not like you use to. Sure there is a PDF user guide that comes with the software, but I like having a real book that I can hold in my hands. This new edition of the Official Guide is great - IMO. It's filled with tutorials. There are files that you need to do most of them, and you have to download those from a website. The book has information on where to do that. One thing I really look for in a book / manual like this is a comprehensive index. I want to be able to quickly look up information when I need it, and having to blindly flip through chapters to find something drives me crazy. This guide has a good index. I'm looking forward to learning a lot from this book. There have been a lot of changes and improvements to Corel Draw since I last used it. Starting off, I'm working on learning some new 3D techniques right now - Chapter Three.

This is a hard review to write. First I should say I have some sort of reading and understanding at the same time disability when it comes to stuff like this. With that said I still like the book but I use it strictly for reference. After a lot of research for my new business I decided the program Corel Draw X7 seemed to be the best investment and universal program to use. I had used other "design" programs before but nothing with so much going on in just one program. I knew the program could do almost all I needed, but knowing it can and knowing how it can are 2 different things. I could not locate a Corel Draw X7 Book for Dummies so I went with this one. I ended up pretty much learning from YouTube most of the items I needed to get a really good understanding of Corel Draw X7. I now find the book more useful now that I have a 50 to 70 percent base understanding of how the program works. (That percent is a guestimate, the more you know the less you know) My personal challenge is always remember how something is done, even if I have done it before and this book is nice to just look at quick and go "oh Yea". It may work well with others as a book to use to learn the program if you have a good ability to read, understand and maintain something. Otherwise it is wonderful for easy look ups. It seems to be organized well and I can easily look up items that I am looking for at that moment. I would recommend this book for just about anyone trying to learn or just for reference. It may not be as useful for some but any book that can help in any way can't be a bad thing.

This is a terrific book, with step-by-step instructions for creating graphics with CorelDraw. At first I ordered the Kindle version, but it apparently didn't like my device, and I was unable to download it, so I contacted customer service to return the Kindle version & ordered the paperback. Since this is a large book with many pages, it is really better to have the paperback version anyway, if you are like me and like to jump around in the book, take notes in the margins, etc. I put colored tabs on each chapter and labeled them for easy referral. The book has downloadable content that the author tells you about at the beginning of the book, there is an extra chapter on how to create fonts in CorelDraw, as well as downloadable graphics to go with the tutorials in the book. This is an in-depth book, and so it takes a while if you want to follow along with your software step-by-step with the written tutorials. I've been working on going through the tutorials for some time, and it has been helpful with learning the software. Incidentally, if you own Bernina Software 7 for digitizing machine embroidery (or some older versions of that program), some features of CorelDraw are embedded into that program---the Corel version embedded in that program focus on features useful for that application. Some people with Bernina Software 7 who also purchased the full version of CorelDraw told me about this.

Great book. Worth every penny. Bought it 2 1/2 years ago when we bought a laser engraver. We had NO experience at all, and have been able to solve any problems we encountered by going to the book. Learned a lot of things we never would have found out about without the book. We still refer to it when we want to do something we haven’t done before.

The book is everything that I hoped it would be. I now have a better understanding of the dimension tools as well as symbols,brushes and fonts. It's nice to go straight to the book for easy to understand tutorials. His little tips outlined are quite helpful. Thanks Gary for a great book on how to use Corel Draw.

For a newbie, Coreldraw X7 is a complicated, non-intuitive program. I'm used to CAD. Constructing line drawings is simple and straightforward. CD X7 the book suffers from a presentation/method deficit. Even the tutorials suffer. Why not start with a relatively simple drawing, start from scratch, and take the example from beginning to end, eg., ending in a PDF or JPEG file. Show the whole process in broad brush. Then do elaborations, building on the initial example. Frankly, I don't know how much I'll use CD X7. I originally wanted to use it for illustrating technical objects, but it seems so complicated.

Detailed process book, requires reading (illustrations included not always enlightening) and extensive use of the index needed to comprehend program. Terms in index don't always reveal answer, but otherwise worth acquiring. Online tie in with Corel website is of value.

Since time immemorial I have been buying the CorelDRAW Official Guides written by G. D. Bouton and I am never disappointed in the book: it is well written with explanations clearly understandable, it covers the basics and some advanced features of the application program, the exercises are worthwhile to go through and they are very good. As a matter of fact when I first saw the program in its seventh incarnation I did not know exactly which is what now. I had to wait for the Official Guide when finally I was able to reclaim all my past knowledge and learning the new.

Bom livro sobre o assunto mas poderia ser mais didático. A lógica um pouco confusa e dispersiva às vezes muito divagante

Love this programme! One very versatile all round package, have been singing its praises for years.

An excellent book.

This is a superb product. Pretty much anything you can imagine you can produce. The vast majority of the features are intuitive, but if you are prepared to explore the 'tools' & 'dockers' you will discover so much that is so useful. The fact that a drawing can be scaled to any level without any loss of definition is brilliant, huge sharp posters absolutely no problem.