Operation Manual

Managing projects | 275
Managing projects
The Object Data Manager is an advanced feature that is particularly useful as a project management tool when you create or supervise a
large project. Using the Object Data Manager is like having a small spreadsheet program, like Quattro Pro or Microsoft Excel, within your
graphics program. It lets you track expenses, deadlines, assignments, progress, or anything else you need to organize. You can enter many
types of project data about individual objects or groups of objects.
This section contains the following topics:
• “Setting up the project database” (page 275)
• “Assigning and copying object data” (page 276)
• “Viewing an object data summary” (page 277)
Setting up the project database
Before you assign project data to objects in a drawing, you need to know what information you want to display. By default, CorelDRAW
creates four data fields: Name, Cost, Comments, and CDRStaticID. The first three fields can be edited or deleted as required. The
CDRStaticID field is hidden; it is used by CorelDRAW to identify objects, and it can’t be edited or deleted.
You can create and assign as many data fields as you want, as long as they use permitted format variables. For more information about
assigning data fields, see “Assigning and copying object data” on page 276.
At any time, you can change the setting, such as the name or format, of a data field. If you require custom fields, you can define their
formats using four basic field formats: General, Date/time, Linear/angular, and Numeric. Each of these formats provides a series of
common settings. If the preset formats in CorelDRAW don’t provide the information you want in your data summary, you can create your
own custom formats using the variables available for the format type you’re using. The field format you select is used for all objects in the
active drawing.
You can also delete any data field except Name and CDRStaticID. When you delete a field, you also delete all data entered for that field in
the active document.
To add a data field
1
Click Window  Dockers Object data manager.
2
In the Object data docker, click the Open field editor button .
3 In the Object data field editor dialog box, click Create new field.
4 To change the name of the field you created, double-click the field, type a new name, and press Enter.