what do you hate about your software?

[The Vector Doctor]

OK, every thread on the corel vs illustrator talks about how wonderful their software is, let's do the opposite. Complain about Illustrator, Corel, Photoshop, Flexi, Gerber. No picking on Publisher or Office. Those programs already are hated by the design community.

Tell me what you dislike about your program of choice. Even our favorite software has problems. What I am hoping is that this thread will help us find solutions to make our software better. You never know, something you hate about your software is not the program itself but your own inexperience or maybe it has changed in later versions. Or a wish list of what your program should be able to do.

One of my beefs with Illustrator is the very small preview for the "free distort" function. It has been the same for several versions and the trial of cs5 I used did not fix it, so I may have to wait for cs6. The preview of this filter is so small that you cannot fine tune it in any way

I have others, and will add them in later posts

 

[Locals Find!]

I like the way corel lets me automatically center my project to my artboard with 1 key stroke. I hate that illustrator doesn't also seem to have this function. Its a real pain in the rear sometimes.

Also, on things I don't like about illustrator is that when I am overwriting files it asks me twice and makes me click twice to save the file.

Corel: I hate that everytime I make changes to a file and then save it with those changes it makes a backup of the original which then clogs my filing system with useless files that I have to manually delete.

 

[The Vector Doctor]

Wish list for Illustrator....

Corel has the ability to convert points on a polygon and then each point on that polygon mirrors what you do to those points

On the attached sample, in Corel you can create this multipointed star, convert JUST 2 points into a curve and then adjust the control points. When you do this, ALL the points on the polygon follow suit. In Illustrator, when you adjust one point, only the one point of the polygon changes. There is no easy way to make the bottom shape in Illustrator look like what I have attached. In corel it is a couple of easy steps

 

[The Vector Doctor]

I like the way corel lets me automatically center my project to my artboard with 1 key stroke. I hate that illustrator doesn't also seem to have this function. Its a real pain in the rear sometimes.

You can do this in Illustrator... see attached. It is called align to artboard, in the lower right

 

[GAC05]

"Corel: I hate that everytime I make changes to a file and then save it with those changes it makes a backup of the original which then clogs my filing system with useless files that I have to manually delete. "

Some of these are going to end up being user error:

Ctr-J > Workspace > Save > un-check "Make backup on save"

wayne k
guam usa

 

[Locals Find!]

You can do this in Illustrator... see attached. It is called align to artboard, in the lower right

I am using Illustrator CS2 I found the check box for align to artboard but nothing seems to happen. I am sure I am doing something wrong. Before any gets upset that I am using such an old version. It works well for what I do and I didn't see any benefit personally yet to upgrading.

"Corel: I hate that everytime I make changes to a file and then save it with those changes it makes a backup of the original which then clogs my filing system with useless files that I have to manually delete. "

Some of these are going to end up being user error:

Ctr-J > Workspace > Save > un-check "Make backup on save"

wayne k
guam usa

Thanks. I was pretty sure it was user error on my part. That made my day.

 

[The Vector Doctor]

Use the options shown just above it. To center in the artboard chose the center top/bottom and center left/right. Sure that is more than one click but it does more than that. You can also choose to have it align to the artboard edges too, not just the center

 

[GAC05]

Flexi 8.6 production manager
Set up multi copies of a single image to fill most of the printable area of the media - say 6 across.
Close out that screen leaving the print job on hold in the queue.
Hit the print button after loading the material without reopening the job set up.
For unknown reasons at random times the ganging will change - instead of 6 across it will start printing 5 across with the 6th copy jumping to a second row.
Similar issue - set the images to print centered on the material, change the quantity and the print justification changes to left justified.

Still in the production manager:
Zoom tools:
Seem to be linked to some kind of random scale generator that is not user controlled.
Use the zoom window tool to zoom in and you may or may not get the area you wanted to look at.
Hit the zoom to extents - should in theory, zoom to everything within the active panel - seldom does.

Illustrators mesh fill tool is much nicer than Corel's, same goes for Illy's 3d extrude - much better than Draw's.
Corel's selection tools are more flexible than Illy's and I like Draw's node editing over AI's.


wayne k
guam usa

 

[signmeup]

Illustrator needs a"zoom all" button like Corel... or any other drawing program on the planet. (oops... that was a bit snarky, wasn't it.)

It's a royal pain in the a$$ zooming out to see all objects in Illustrator.

 

[GAC05]

Illustrator needs a"zoom all" button like Corel... or any other drawing program on the planet. (oops... that was a bit snarky, wasn't it.)

It's a royal pain in the a$$ zooming out to see all objects in Illustrator.

You can get kind of close
Double click the pan tool and it will fill the screen with the artboard
Ctrl-double click the zoom tool and it will zoom a good deal outside the 227x227 drawing area.

wayne k
guam usa

 

[Locals Find!]

Use the options shown just above it. To center in the artboard chose the center top/bottom and center left/right. Sure that is more than one click but it does more than that. You can also choose to have it align to the artboard edges too, not just the center

Thanks its a few extra steps but well worth it for saving me the time on lining up stuff inside my printing templates. Thanks. :U Rock:

 

[Techman]

Corel. I like it all. It does every thing I need
Tutors are easy to folow and always complete with all steps included.

Illy, difficult to select nodes.
Difficult to select the vector.
Illy, tutors always have a step or two missing. You cannot duplicate the tutor with out searching for some obscure key stroke.
Illy non standard definitions for operations.

 

[GAC05]

I do not like Illy selecting guidelines that are not even visible on the screen.
I often get files from customers with hidden guide lines that show up when I select visible objects to get an idea of the size and one (or both) is 227"

wayne k
guam usa

 

[GAC05]

I wish AI's rasterizing limit was not so low that you could export a 3x12ft layout as a bitmap (100dpi) without having to open the ai file in Photoshop (that I do not own).

wayne k
guam usa

 

[ChiknNutz]

One thing about Corel, though I really love it for the most part, is it can be kinda flaky sometimes when converting an outline to an object...sometimes the converted outline just "tweaks" and not ever sure why.

 

[ForgeInc]

Good idea for a thread....My biggest pet peeve for years using Illustrator is that it still does not have a collect for output function or package function that will gather all your links and fonts into a folder for release. Am dumbfounded they have not included this function yet. I have read there are scripts you can install to do this, and have tried them with limited success, but c'mon...! This would be HUGE and I don't see why they haven't done it yet.

That, and the fact that it crashes a couple times a day, pretty much all I hate about it.

 

[weaselboogie]

There's a couple of things that I thought for sure Corel would fix from older versions to newer ones, but it seems as though they only add new features.

- From 12 to 14, Corel's text to path function seems to be a lot less functional.

- I'm spoiled by InDesign, but I wish Corels text layout features were a bit more customizable to document format.

- Still not diggin' how Corel handles colors. Some pantones don't look at all what they're suppose to.

- Anytime I do a complex design to extrude, I presave because it may crash 50% of the time.

Overall, these are minor things. I don't see myself switching over to any other design program and I've tried quite a few.

 

[GAC05]

I like Illustrator's ability to control visibility of individual objects and on the other hand apply attributes to whole layers. Draw could use both of these.

wayne k
guam usa

 

[Border]

I've been using Signlab since 1997. I tend to default back to it for all my vector editing but am trying hard to get used to all the adobe stuff and terminology... It's quite different!

I'm using Signlab e6 and HATE the bitmap editing features. One of these days I will download a new trial version and see if it's any better for that stuff.

I also enjoy swearing, so this combination fits into my lifestyle quite well~!

 

[signmeup]

You can get kind of close
Double click the pan tool and it will fill the screen with the artboard
Ctrl-double click the zoom tool and it will zoom a good deal outside the 227x227 drawing area.

wayne k
guam usa

The thing I hate most about Illustrator is the "help" files. I clicked help and had to go online.(strike one) then I typed in "pan tool" and got this: Adobe Illustrator CS4 * Save For Web & Devices overview Select the Hand tool (or hold down the spacebar), and drag in the view area to
pan over the image. Select the Zoom tool , and click in a view to zoom in; ...
If you click the link you get a whole page of stuff about saving for web devices. I did what it said but nothing happened that I could detect . I found the hand tool right away but no sign of a pan tool. If I knew what it looked like I bet I could find it.