Exploring the Standard Toolbar in CorelDRAW

In this tutorial, we’ll review the icons and options on CorelDRAW’s Standard toolbar.
The toolbar we’ll be using here is specific to the Windows version of CorelDRAW Graphics Suite.
CorelDRAW Standard and Essentials also have this toolbar, but with slightly fewer tools.
By default, the Standard toolbar runs across the top of the CorelDRAW interface, just below the menu
bar.

If you don’t see this toolbar, right-click anywhere in any other toolbar and choose Standard.

The Window > Toolbars menu is another place where you can toggle toolbars on and off.
If you want the Standard toolbar, or any other toolbar, to appear in a different spot, you can right-click
in a toolbar and toggle off Lock Toolbars. You can then grab any toolbar by its left edge and place it
anywhere and drag an edge to resize it.
Dragging a toolbar back to any edge docks it in place. To keep toolbars from moving, right-click again in
a toolbar and toggle Lock Toolbars back on.
To change the size of icons on this toolbar, right-click in the Standard toolbar and choose Customize.
With the Default Button Size option, you can change the icon size throughout all toolbars, or you
change icon size just for the Standard toolbar.

Now let’s look at each option in the Standard toolbar.

As in most other applications, the first icon is New, which starts a new CorelDRAW file. Next comes
Open, and clicking the drop-down arrow for this tool opens a list of recent files you can choose to open
again. The familiar Save icon is next, which is only enabled after you make a change in your file.
CorelDRAW files are saved in CDR format.

Keyboard shortcuts can be seen when hovering over an icon, and they are generally standard for
common tools. For example, we have Ctrl + N for New, Ctrl + S for Save, etc.
The next two icons are Open from Cloud and Save to Cloud. Every user of CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
2019 and later can access CorelDRAW.app with their Corel account credentials, and store files in their
Cloud account. For users with a CorelDRAW Graphics Suite subscription, there are also exclusive
collaborative features, such as live comments.
To learn more about collaboration and Cloud features, watch our full tutorial Managing Cloud Files and
Collaboration.
Another familiar icon is Print, which opens a multi-tab window with numerous print options.

The next set of icons are Cut, Copy, and Paste, with the familiar shortcuts of Ctrl + X, Ctrl + C, and Ctrl +
V. If you draw an object and keep it selected, Copy saves the object to the clipboard, Cut removes it
while keeping it in the clipboard, and Paste brings it back in.

Undo and Redo are next, with shortcuts of Ctrl + Z and Ctrl + Shift + Z. You can click Undo repeatedly to
go back one step at a time, or use the drop-down to return to a specific step. Redo works the same way.
Import, or Ctrl + I, is for bringing other files into your drawing, and you can click the All File Formats list
to see what can be imported.
Export, or Ctrl + E, is used for saving your CorelDRAW file, or selected objects, to a format other than
CDR. Click the Save as Type drop down to see the extensive list of available formats, and the available
options depend on the selected format.

Publish to PDF is used just for PDF export and has a wealth of settings. To learn more, view our full
tutorial on publishing to PDF.

Next comes Zoom levels. If you use your mouse wheel to zoom in or out, you will see the zoom
percentage update, or you can enter an exact value.
To learn more about zoom, watch our full tutorial How to Pan and Zoom in CorelDRAW.
The Full-screen preview icon displays the contents of your drawing in full-screen mode, with no toolbars
or menus. You can end full-screen mode by pressing any key or clicking a mouse button.

The next three icons control the display of reference elements. Rulers appear along the top and left
edges, in the current units which can be set in the property bar.

Show Grid turns on the default document grid, whose properties you can change by right-clicking on a
ruler and choosing Grid Setup. In Document Grid, you can change the spacing of grid lines, switch to
grid dots, and toggle Snap to Grid. We’ll look at snaps a bit farther on.
The last reference display option is Guidelines. These are added from the Guidelines docker, which you
can open by choosing Window > Dockers > Guidelines. Or they can be added by dragging from a ruler
into the desktop.

If the Snap Off icon is enabled, then no snaps will be working, and no tooltips appear while your cursor
is moving around. To use snaps, toggle off this icon, or press Alt + Q. Then you can use the Snap To
menu to choose the snaps you want.

When snaps are on, the cursor identifies and moves to the exact location of certain objects, such as a
grid point, edge, node, midpoint, etc. You can use these points for drawing or moving.
The Options icon opens the Options window, with icons at the top right to open several tabs.

• CorelDRAW options: Define how several features in the interface will work, like snapping, text,
warnings, and more.
• Customization options: Control the appearance of the interface.
 • Tools options: Set tool defaults. For example, open Rectangle and choose default corners and
their radii.
• Global options: Control system-related options such as file locations and formats, and privacy
settings.
• Workspace options: Choose from different workspaces. The Default workspace is active, but, as
an example, if you switch to Lite and set as current, you’ll have a smaller set of displayed tools
to work with. You can also create customized workspaces that contain the tools you use most
often. To learn more, watch our full tutorial How to Customize the CorelDRAW Workspace.
Finally, we have the Launch menu, which launches other Corel applications, such as Corel CAPTURE or
Corel PHOTO-PAINT. The Get More option opens the Store in the Welcome Screen, where you can filter
the list to see what you might want to add.