Today I wanted to follow up on a number of issues I’ve covered in previous posts. Most of these are topics that came up when I was doing my presentation at the NBM Show in Los Angeles. I’ll be repeating the presentation in Arlington, TX next month so I hope I get the chance to talk with more of you in person at that show. For those who haven’t already gotten a copy of my presentation, you can get it on the CorelDRAW for the T-Shirt Business page.

Everybody loves free stuff, especially when it comes to CorelDRAW. And I love keeping users up to date on getting the most out of their software and computer. That led us to create the free Resources Docker for CorelDRAW X4-X6. This Docker gives you a very quick way to look at the latest information in the Graphics Unleashed Blog and Jeff Harrison’s Daily Diversion right inside of CorelDRAW. It is free, so go to the Resources Docker page and download your copy now.

A task that any experienced user will undertake on a regular basis is node editing. Even with all the fancy effects, I truly believe that fully understanding node editing is the most important things for any user. Getting the nodes just right is much easier if you increase their size and turn on the hidden feature to color code them. Enlarge and Color Code Your Nodes in CorelDRAW X5 describes the process and it also works in CorelDRAW X6. Once again, I’ve provided you a free file to turn on the color coding.

Using the right colors for a project is incredibly important. On a big project that will incorporate many files, it is just as important to have the colors to be used in that project handy at all times. I create a custom palette in CorelDRAW containing the colors for a project and that way I have the swatches handy whenever I need them. At right you’ll see the palettes I created for CorelDRAW X5 Unleashed and CorelDRAW X6 Unleashed. Once you take advantage of the power to create these custom palettes, I think you’ll find that you save a lot of time and have more consistent colors in your projects.

Just another reminder that Microsoft will end all support for Windows XP in three months (April 6, 2014 to be exact). If you are still running Windows XP, you simply can’t sit back and wait any longer. Put a Plan in Place Now to Upgrade From Windows XP. The hackers and sitting back and waiting for Microsoft to quit fixing security holes and they will do everything possible to infect your computer. Good security software will help, but you are fighting a losing battle.

I also want to remind anyone who upgrades to Internet Explorer 11 that it has a setting that will cause many major Web sites to stop working correctly. This includes Google and Microsoft sites! I bring it up because it will also cause an error when you try to login to Graphics Unleashed Media Marketplace and we have a user struggling with this every single day. You can either take 30 seconds to change one setting in Internet Explorer 11 or you can use any other browser as they don’t have this same problem caused by Microsoft. In the long run, you will find things much better if you simply switch to Firefox or Chrome!