September 09, 1997, TechWeb News Corel Brushes Up On Draw By Joy Russell OTTAWA -- Corel next week will release the second beta version of Draw 8, its graphics software for designers and illustrators. In the new beta release, Web designers will find that in addition to the newly added HTML export option, CorelDraw 8 will include a new feature that guarantees compatibility with Web servers. Only material formatted in HTML will be displayed on Web browsers, while the software will not make it possible to view extraneous other data on the Web client, according to company officials. Also added to the new beta release will be HTML Anchors, a feature that lets designers mark anything within a file as bookmarks. In addition, a Bookmark Manager has been added to the tool bar. The new beta of CorelDraw8 will also let illustrators assign Web addresses to any component of a graphic. CorelDraw 8 will let illustrators embed graphics into text via the Windows clipboard. A new option has been added that lets users add 3-D effects to existing text. In the beta release, Corel is only displaying those graphics as a bitmap. The company said higher-quality formats will be supported once the product ships. Like its predecessor released last fall, CorelDraw 8 contains three primary components: the main illustration feature called Draw, Photo-Paint for enhancing of photographs, and a program for rendering 3-D graphics called Dream 3D. Added into the Arrange Menu is Object Locking, which prevents an object from being changed except by "unlocking" it. The locked object keeps its position in the object stacking order and can only be unlocked for modification by choosing "Select All" under the Edit Menu and clicking on "Unlocked." Corel also updated its tools. When a designer chooses to select multiple objects in the pick state, the user can apply alignment operations without having to enter the alignment dialog. CorelDraw 8 is scheduled to ship in December for $695.