Where does COrelPhotopaint 12 keeps its Globalmacros file?

Now I want to know where does Corel Photopaint keep its Globalmacros file? CorelDraw keeps its in the Draw directory. But I can't find the GMS file for Corel Photopaint... Any help?

[Alex]

Both CorelDRAW and Corel PHOTO-PAINT work pretty much the same as far as GMS are concerned.

Here is the way it works. Probably a bit of history could help too.

CorelDRAW 9 Suite was the first one to introduce VBA and it added the concept of GMS file to store its global macro (GMS = Global Macro Storage). At the time, it could handle a single GMS file, which was called "CorelDRAW9.gms" and "Corel PHOTO-PAINT9.gms" for Draw and Photo-Paint respectively. The file was stored in the application folder such as "...\Graphics9\Draw", and "...\Graphcs9\Corel Photo-Paint".

In version 10, multiple GMSes were supported, and the "GMS" subfolder was added, so the GMS files now go into ...\Draw\GMS, ...\CorelPHOTO-PAINT\GMS folders. However the one "special" GMS was still preserved with it old location - the root of Draw/Photo-Paint folder. So, the application would load the "special" GMS file first, and if it was not there, one would be created. Then it would load any available files from the GMS subfolder.

In version 11 some more changes had happened. Because of Windows XP, limited user accounts, etc. storing files in program folders wasn't a very good idea. You can't write to a program folder under restricted user account, so to comply with WinXP policies, a new location for GMS files was added - in the user settings folder (it's normally located under "C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\Corel\Graphics11"). The original location of GMS files are still supported. And the logic becomes a bit more complicated:

1. The application tries to load the "special" GMS:
- First, it attempts to load it from the user data folder first (C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\Corel\Graphics11\User Draw).
- If the file doesn't exist, it tries to load it from the programs folder (C:\Program Files\Corel\Corel Graphics 11\Draw).
- If file is still not there, an empty VBA project is created
2. The application then loads all projects from GMS subfolders from both user and program folders.
3. If the "special" GMS file was load from the program folder, the application checks if it can write back to it. If it can (which means that the user is administrator, or have similar rights), nothing special happens. However if the file cannot be written to, the GMS file will be saved into the user folder. Next time the application starts, it will load the modified file from there.
4. The application also checks if it can write to the other GMS files from the program folder. If not, the corresponding VBA projects are marked as "read-only" and cannot be modified in VBA (you can run the macro, but can't change it, well, you can change it, but the changes will not be saved).

Same applies to Photo-Paint.

Now, in version 12, the "special" CorelDRAW gms file lost its version number from the file, and it is now called "CorelDRAW.gms" instead of "CorelDRAW12.gms". Photo-Paint's GMS file still has the version number in its name.

CorelDRAW comes with a GMS file installed, that's why you can find the GMS in the program folder. Photo-Paint doesn't have a "special" GMS installed, so it creates a new one and saves it in the user folder.

So, to finally answer your question, you can find your Photo-Paint GMS in D:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Application Data\Corel\Graphics12\User CorelPHOTO-PAINT\Corel PHOTO-PAINT12.gms

You can, of course, delete the file from the user folder and create one under programs and it still should work (unless you are under a limited user account).

I hope it clears things out.