Expert: Neal Ziring - 11/4/2005

Question
I'm using Photo Paint 12. For some unknown reason my clone and paint tools don't work.
When I try to use them, there is absolutely no effect or none is shown. I uninstalled the software and installed it again, but the problem is still there. Is there a way if fixing this?
Thanks
Mark

Answer
Mark,

 There are many ways that you could set the options
on PhotoPaint brush tools that would make them seem
to stop working.  Most of these would survive a
re-install of the software, because your personal
settings are saved separately from the Corel installation.

 I'm going to give you some things to check.  Hopefully
one of them will match your particular circumstances.
If none of them work, you'll probably have to delete your
personal Corel PhotoPaint settings and let the tool
re-establish them.  I'll cover that at the end.

1) First, run PhotoPaint and open an image.  Then, select
the brush tool and make sure you've selected a paint color
that will show up against your image.  Next, make sure the
Property Bar is visible.  If it isn't, then right-click on
any toolbar and select "Property Bar" from the menu.
Look at the property bar -- if there is a little double
arrow pointing to your right at the end of the bar, then
click on it to expose the full property bar.  From left to
right, set the controls on the property bar to:
Art Brush, Quick Doodler, 40 Round, 40, Normal, 0, selected,
50, unselected.  Then try drawing with the brush.  It
should work.

2) Second, if the above steps didn't work, then try the
following.  Make the "Paint Tools" toolbar visible by
right-clicking on any toolbar and picking "Paint Tools".
Select the "Ball Point Pen" tool, and try drawing with
the brush.  It should work.  If it doesn't, then I don't
know what could be wrong with your installation.

3) Third, for the clone brush, follow the same procedure
as (1) above.  Try cloning something in the image.  It
should work.  If it doesn't, then your installation is
really messed up.

4) Fourth, try forcing PhotoPaint to reset all your local
settings.  Find your profile directory on Windows.  It
should be something like this:

      c:\documents and settings\username

where 'username' is your Windows user name.  (If you
don't know your username, which may be different than
your login name, you can find it out by typing
"set username" in a Command Prompt window.)  Anyhow,
go to that directory in Windows Explorer.  There should
be a sub-folder named "Application Data".  If it
isn't there, set your Explorer options to reveal hidden
and system files.  Under Application Data, there should
be folder named "Corel", and under that a folder named
"Graphics12".  Make sure that no Corel products are
currently running, and then rename "Graphics12" to
"old-Graphics12".  Then try restarting PhotoPaint.  It
should recreate the Graphics12 directory with all the
original defaults.


Anyway, that's all I can think of.  Hope it works...

...nz