There are a series of tutorials that are free video tutorials on CorelDRAW at
http://www.clicknlearn.com/Dwnlods/FreeDloads.htm. Of course they also have some ones you pay for. But they are excellent and you can follow along and practice while watching the tutorials.
Illustrator has also a blend tool and it works approximately the same. For example, you can do a straight blend from one object to another, and specify the steps, the items can be the same (as in a repeating border) or different. You can blend along a curve, rotate the objects as well along a curve. All the tools for doing this show up on the property bar when you click on the blend tool.
The Blend Tool is on the Normal Toolbar (left vertical half-way down) and it also hosts a number of other effects, such as Contour (not in Illustrator), Distortion, Envelope, Drop Shadow and Transparency. In addition there is Perspective, Bevel (not in Illustrator) and the Embroidery Effect (not in Illustrator) all on the Effect drop down menu.
All of these except for the Embroidery Effect are live effects which means you never leave the drawing Window to apply the effect. For most effects, you can use the Property Bar. This bar floats under the File Menu bar and the Standard Menu Bar, unless you have chosen to rearrange your menus. Paying attention to what is happening here is key to understanding what you want DRAW to do for you. By "live" it also is interactive, once selected, dragging with the mouse has the appropriate effect. I might add at this point that the gradient tool also is live in that sense if you want it to be, and you can invoke it simply by hitting "G" on the keyboard, from this it will draw a linear gradient by just dragging across the object. You can drag colors to it from the color palette, and when the box which is selected (has a double line) you can alter the color on that one edit box. Other gradients are the radial, conical (not in Illustrator) and square (not in Illustrator), in addition you can fill with bitmaps and there is a wide assortment of textures your can apply to anything. The fill tool is the last on the tool bar. But the fountain fill also has a flyout next up under what looks like a pen nib, and you can edit gradients in there as well as.
In addition, all effects except for the Embroidery effect have their own Dockers that mostly do about what the Property Bar does, but for making custom envelopes, the Envelope Docker is essential.
The reason these are called live effect is that no matter, you can still edit them.
Additionally to getting the most out of DRAW you need to leave up the Object Manager Docker. Unlike Illustrator, the Object Manager tells you just about everything you could want to know about any object you have created including its stacking order, color, line color and if it is grouped or locked. You can drag an item up and down in the stacking order, and since you are interested in Blends you will note that when objects are blended, a description of the blend will be in the Object Manager.
The reason why for a rectangle I prefer to blend each side separately is because it gives me full control over what is happening in the corners. Make one side, hit "+" on the numeric keypad and it duplicates right on top, then select it and ctrl drag with the mouse to the opposite side of the rectangle. Then I break the blends apart both top and bottom, and blend the one side, and copy and drag as before to the opposite side. It really is fast, once you get the hang of it.
RE: learning DRAW; you can also buy the ebook by Foster Coburn which is out right now from unleash.com, it covers all the basics and makes learning DRAW a breeze. It runs about $79.00 for the DVD and about $49.00 for the CD, the DVD has lots of extras on it as you might expect but the contents of the ebook are the same. In many cases he gives you a work file to practice when watching videos on all subjects pertaining to DRAW. If you have bought DRAW because you are making money with it or are intending on earning your living with it, the quicker you can learn, the quicker you can earn. Makes sense, and is a lot cheaper than his Boot Camp program which is live and in person and on location.
Even though I know DRAW pretty well, there are things I learn constantly and I do at least one or two tutorials a month to keep up with my job. It keeps the mind sharp.
Plus the ideas in the forums are fabulous, it is a great community of people, very helpful.
