Saving corel draw files from vista using parallels

J

jbuechel

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Not sure if this belongs here or in the os x forum but...
I have a problem that has me completely stumped and I am a seasoned Win user but a mac newbie.

I have vista running in the latest version of parallels on my new macbook pro. The problem is saving corel draw files to the shared folders. Corel Draw's file extention is .cdr and OSX is interpreting these files as DVD/CD-R files and allowing me to open them but not do an overwrite save because it considers them "read only". It will however allow me to save the file with a new name- and I have been appending each save with an incremental number. This works but is inconvenient and I have to remember to delete all of the temporary versions when I finish working on a file.

I have tried changing the default file extentions in both vista and osx for these files with no success. It still considers them CD-R files.

Can anyone tell me if there is a way to register the .cdr file extention, that corel is using, into osx so it no longer thinks they are CD-R files or am I just stuck???
 
You are not stuck, at all. MacOS X is perfectly capable of handling multiple filetypes with a single file extension. Simple do a File > Get Info and change the default application of your Windows-created Corel Draw files to the compatible application in MacOS X. You will find it under the Opens with: popup menu. You do not want to change all files with the .cdr extension because it is the MacOS X extension for CD/DVD master disk images files.

Even if you don't change the default application, it is still perfectly editable with a Corel Draw-compatible application. Just drag and drop it on the application.
 
Thank you for taking the time to give an answer...

I tried that too but corel draw doesn't have a compatible mac application. I did notice that corel photo paint, (which has a .cpt extention and opens and saves fine), is being shown in osx as a Unix executable file and is listed as open with:<none>. I don't know how to set the .cdr extention for the corel draw files to Unix in my application choices or how to get the "open with" to state <none> mimicking how osx is handling the software from the corel suite.

I think if I could do that my problem would be solved.
 
If you don't intend to edit the files within MacOS X, then don't worry about it. FWIW, when MacOS X has no idea what a file's type is, it defaults to Unix executable file.
 
But the problem is osx does think it knows what do do with them and thinks they are CD-R files so when I open an existing file in Corel Draw and edit it then try to save it Corel is telling me that the file is read only and has to be saved with a new file name.

If I check the file properties in Vista- it says it is a writeable file but when I check the file properties on the Mac side it identifies the file as a CD-R because of the .cdr file extension that corel uses. Even though all of the permissions are set to read-write in the get info pane.

I have tried to fool it from the Windows side by creating a new file extension and registering it with windows as a Corel Draw extension- but even that didn't work. I still ended up with a read only file. And the mac side still thought it was a CD-R and not an unknown file type.

I have also tried to associate the .cdr extention on the mac side with other applications thinking I could fool it into thinking it was another file type but this just isn't working either- Still read only when I want to do an overwrite save in Corel.

I think Front Row is the mac application that registers the .cdr extension in osx. I need to figure out how to also associate a Unix Executable File with the extension. That is not one of the options in Finder for binding and application to a file extension within "get info"

Since I am having no other issues with any other application saving files within Windows and Parallels I can't think of any other reason for this to happen.

Thanks again for taking the time to try and help. It has been a bit frustrating...
 
The fact that OSX thinks it knows what a CDR file is won't affect how Corel Draw in Windows sees it - there's no connection between the two in that respect. If Corel in Parallels is seeing the file as read-only then this is because of something else going on, not because of OSX's opinion of the file type.
 
jbuechel said:
But the problem is osx does think it knows what do do with them and thinks they are CD-R files so when I open an existing file in Corel Draw and edit it then try to save it Corel is telling me that the file is read only and has to be saved with a new file name.

...
Click to expand...
To follow-up knight885, you have a permissions problem which is not at all unusual when accessing files using Windows apps on a MacOS X-based volume. The problem is not unique to the .cdr extension.
 
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