Inexpensive, but with drawbacks, PhotoPaint good for compositing layers

Author's Rating:

Pros: Whole suite of apps for the price of one Adobe product

Cons: Some of the apps are vexing, steep learning curve for hobbyists

The Bottom Line: 
PhotoPaint can be a powerful adjunct for Pshop pros who want fast compositing

Author's Review
Note: my review covers the Windows platform, there is also at least one Mac version. I have never used any Corel product on a Mac and cannot verify how it will work there.
While the Corel suite packs quite a few apps for the price, some of them are not very good. To begin with, most of the programs have a color fidelity issue. What you see is probably not what you will print or see when it's published on the Web.
The main app, CorelDraw I would place somewhere between Illustrator and Quark. Be aware that it doesn't have drawing ease of Illustrator nor page control of Quark. Master pages have been a problem in that if you change a master page item on one page, all the pages get that change. Newer versions of the program are more apt to crash.
PHOTOPAINT
This Photoshop wannabe (also available individually) is geared towards professionals. Hobbyists will have a tough row to hoe or look elsewhere for something less complex. The program is not quite as good as Pshop but has a few advantages over its competitor. The main one is the scrapbook or browser. Photoshop has one too. It allows you to view and open files. PhotoPaint does this too, but goes one vital and important step further.
I do a lot of online collages and this requires building up of layers. With Pshop, this would involve opening, copying and dragging a file into a new document. With PhotoPaint, you can do that but add however many layers your machine will handle in one operation. Note that PhotoPaint calls them 'objects.'
How this works is to open the browser 'docker' (a window that attachs to the right side of your screen) and find the folder where the desired images are located. Once there, icons can be resized for easier identification. The docker can be expanded to take up most of the screen. Files can be chosen much in the manner of a file manager like Windows Explorer. Click your pointing device on any of the selected files, drag it over to the new document and let go of the pointing device. PhotoPaint will then copy and paste all of the selected items into the new document. It order to use the new document in Pshop you have to go into the File menu, choose 'save as' and select 'Photoshop' from the drop-down box (just below the file name box). I would suggest to Pshop pros that they consider this a Photoshop 4 image, i.e., no 'live' text nor trick layer fx.
A couple of other things PhotoPaint does better than Pshop:
1-Holding down the cursor and shift key resizes any painting tool.
2-Pshop users who want something better than Pshop's lame 'dissolve' setting should check out the controls on the Spray Can tool.

CAVEATS
1-The browser may also be used to delete unwanted files. However deleting from removable, rewritable media will delete them forever, gone, poof, NEVER to be retrieved.
2-While you can shuttle the document between Pshop and PhotoPaint, one should do so cautiously. Older versions of Photopaint can render 'live' text to bitmap and discard layer effect information.
2-Most tools have keys (like in 'm' for mask) different from Pshop assigned to them.
3-Masking tools operate differently from Pshop. The pen tool is rather frustrating to use. Selections are better done in Pshop and loaded from Photopaint's Mask menu.
4-In one way, PhotoPaint actually works better under Win 95-98. Under either of those operating systems, the browser 'remembers' the folder you were viewing. Under XP you have to start from the desktop every time you use the app.
5-PhotoPaint is slow at saving files.

OTHER PROGRAMS
The only other apps worth installing are a versatile screen capture utility and a font manager to use with the wealth of fonts (both Type 1 and TrueType) included with the suite disk.

INSTALLATION
The installation tree has to be fully opened in order to get what you want and avoid what you don't want. Corel products are notorious diskspace hogs and a careless install can scarf down 200-300MB.

PRICE
It is only necessary to get a version 6 or later to get PhotoPaint's browser. Savvy Ebay shoppers can therefore pounce on a bargain.