An Overview of the CorelDRAW Toolbox
The CorelDRAW Toolbox is the toolbar located, by default, vertically to the left of the workspace. The
Toolbox below is what you’ll see when using the Default workspace, but will vary a bit in other
workspaces, such as Lite or Touch.
You can hover over any tool button to get a tooltip popup, which identifies the tool name and describes
what it does. If the tool has a keyboard shortcut, such as Z for the Zoom tool, its shortcut is also listed in
the popup.
The small arrow in the lower right corner of an icon indicates that the tool is part of a tool group.
Clicking this arrow opens the flyout of related tools.
Clicking an icon activates that tool, and in most cases, the cursor icon changes to match the tool icon.
When a tool is active, the status bar at the lower left provides some guidance or tips on how the tool
works. As an example, if you click the Rectangle tool, the status bar lists what double-clicking or the
modifier keys do.
The Property Bar is the horizontal toolbar located above the drawing window, and below the Menu bar
and Standard toolbar. This toolbar contains icons or fields that are relevant to the active tool. For
example, if you activate the Polygon tool, the property bar will change to provide options for adjusting
the coordinate or size fields, choosing the number of sides, setting outline width, etc.
For some of the drawing tools, such as the Ellipse tool, you can double-click the icon to open the tool’s
Options window.
Many of the tools have more options than those presented in the property bar. For those tools, Dockers
are the place to look for the full set of options. These are called Inspectors for Mac users. The Window >
Dockers menu lists all available dockers. As an example, the Text docker contains all the standard
options from the property bar, as well as many more character, paragraph, and frame options.
The Hints docker is another place to check for more information on the currently active tool. You can
read about how to use the tool, see what the modifier keys do, or how to make edits. There are also
links to help articles and videos.
The Toolbox and other toolbars are docked by default, which means they stick to an edge. They also
don’t move because they’re locked. If you want to move the Toolbox, choose Window > Toolbars and
toggle off Lock Toolbars. Now each toolbar has a dotted line at the top.
You can drag this line to place the Toolbox where you want, and even resize it. This is called a floating
toolbar.
You can close the Toolbox with the X icon, and to get it back you can go back to Window > Toolbars and
choose Toolbox. Or you can bring up the Toolbars menu by right-clicking in the blank space of any
toolbar, and Toolbox is here as well.
If you move the Toolbox to the top of the workspace it will dock there horizontally, and if you move it
back to its original spot to the left, it will go back to vertical. And you can lock the toolbars again to keep
them from moving.
The Add icon at the end of the Toolbox can be used to add more tools. Choosing Customize opens the
entire list of commands in the Options window, from where you can drag additional tools into the
Toolbox.
The Options window is also where you can change tool names, tooltip text, and change or add shortcut
keys. While the Options window is open, you can rearrange icons, or drag unneeded icons that out of
the toolbar.
To get back to the Toolbox defaults, click Add again and choose Reset toolbar.
