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All of this can be handled swiftly from the Workspace page of Options, where the New, Delete, and Set As Current buttons perform as expected. But there is another element to workspaces that has not been accounted for: what if you use two computers and you want the same workspace on both of them? We’ll need to go backstage to handle this one...

DRAW’s Configuration Files

DRAW manages all of your customizations with configuration files that are buried deep in the recesses of the CorelDRAW directory chain. From the main CorelDRAW directory, you’ll find them at Workspaces\CorelDRAW9, with each workspace having a subdirectory for its files. In each subdirectory, you’ll find two .ini files, several .cfg files for tracking toolbar and menu assignments, and the rather crudely named .sck file for storing shortcut keys.

In addition, for each workspace that you create, DRAW creates a small file with a .cw_ extension. An Explorer window of the Workspace subdirectory would look like this.

These files store all of the changes that you make to the DRAW interface. When you created the Floorplan toolbar earlier in the chapter and docked it on the top of the screen, DRAW recorded all of that action into cdrbars.cfg. Each time you launch DRAW, it looks in cdrbars.cfg for instructions on how to configure its toolbars. If cdrbars.cfg doesn’t exist, DRAW uses its own factory defaults and re-creates cdrbars.cfg from them.

As a result, deleting .cfg files is never fatal. You might lose whatever intelligence you programmed from the Customize dialog, but DRAW can always re-create the file and start up according to its factory defaults. We had quite a fun time experimenting with this, creating all sorts of “accidents” for DRAW:

•  We deleted all of the .cfg files. DRAW just re-created them.

•  We deleted the entire Workspace directory and all of its subdirectories, just to see if DRAW would complain. It didn’t—it blithely opened with factory settings and re-created the subdirectories that it needed.

•  We took all of the .cfg files and replaced them with nonsense files—like autoexec.bat, .dll files from the Windows directory, and text files that read “Mary had a little lamb.” DRAW issued a message that the files were corrupt and that it was using factory settings instead. That was all—no fireworks. We were halfway disappointed...

Moving Workspaces

So with these files being so small, portable, and ultimately not terribly essential, it is really quite a low-risk proposition to share them with another system. In fact, at the CorelWORLD User Conference each year, we create a workspace for the presentation computers, and disseminate it out to 14 computers. Here is how you move a workspace to a different computer:

1.  Using Windows Explorer or your preferred file manager, navigate to the Workspaces subdirectory under the main CorelDRAW directory, and then drill down to CorelDRAW9.

2.  Find the subdirectory and the file with the name of the workspace you want to transport. The file will end in .cw_.

3.  Copy or archive them. There are lots of methods that would work:

•  Copy the directory and the .cw_ file to a diskette.

•  Create a .zip archive from them.

•  E-mail them to another location.

•  Copy them across a network.

The only requirement is that the files in the subdirectory stay in the subdirectory, and the .cw_ file be one level above those files. Consult the Explorer window shown in the previous section for the proper hierarchy.

4.  On the destination computer, copy the files into the same location, with the .cw_ file and the new workspace subdirectory residing in the CorelDRAW9 subdirectory.

Two points to make about this. First, if you are unfamiliar with the destination machine, you will need to find where CorelDRAW was installed. If you can find the icon that starts it, you can check its Properties sheet. Second, if there already is a workspace with the name of the one you want to add, you have two choices: overwrite the existing one or rename either one of them. Renaming a workspace is easy, as long as you remember to rename both the subdirectory and the .cw_ file. If DRAW doesn’t find both elements, it won’t show the workspace in Options Ø Workspace.

Our choice for transport is a .zip file. WinZip handles nested subdirectories with ease, and carting around one file is much easier than several. We also archive our workspaces this way—after all, these files get written to and updated regularly, so they are at greater risk of having something happen to them. We have invested quite a bit into our workspace, so we treat it like valuable data: we back it up. We copy the workspace to a .zip file, so we can easily retrieve it should something bad happen, like, say, the files ending up with “Mary had a little lamb” all over them.

	NOTE Seeing how workspaces are so portable, we have prepared one for advanced users called “Killer Workspace,” and have made it available for download on the companion page of the Sybex Web site. Follow the instructions in this chapter for incorporating it into your system.

What’s Next

Nothing! Ask any author: appendixes don’t count; when you finish the last chapter, you’ve finished the book. Thirty-four chapters ago, we were discussing nodes, paths, lines, and curves. Now we’re talking about custom workspaces, configuration files, and Mary and her lamb. Yup, sounds like we’re done, all right...