I've had the privilege of working from home for the past 7 years. My twins, who are nearly 10, have virtually grown up seeing me at my computer with CorelDraw on the screen.

And the older they get, the more technically capable they get every day.

Lately they have both taken more of an interest in my work and in CorelDraw. So I've started to let them experiment with the program. My daughter created a colorful image of her name, warped slightly with an envelope. My son created a sports-looking image with a manually-drawn baseball on it.

I am careful not to overwhelm them with tips, and to let them learn much of the program the way kids learn most things: by experimenting. Of course I will throw in an occasional tip, but I'm surprised at how quickly they learn the tools by merely trying them out.

It reminds me of a day way back in 1996, when I still worked in an office and I decided to switch to CorelDraw. One of my new employees clamed to be a "CorelDraw expert" on her resume, so I figured she'd be helpful in the transition to the new software.

I guess she exaggerated a little.

Not long after installing version 6 on her computer, I heard exasperated sighs in an obvious cry for help. When I asked her what was wrong, she barked out, "How do I draw a straight line?" She never bothered to use the help files, but was trying to use a tool that resembled one she had used in another application. She didn't experiment and she didn't read the help files.

Back to 2008, and I'm looking at my kids' CorelDraw creations. They both learned how to create straight lines, envelopes, paragraph text, fills, perfect shapes, and many other elements in CorelDraw... not because they were shown, but because they experimented.

There are many graphic artists who become comfortable enough with what they know to stop learning and stop experimenting with the software. But for those of us who are always looking for more, we are never disappointed in our quest to uncover new features or techniques.

This is the core of why I am such a fan of CorelDraw. It's so simple that quite literally a 9-year-old can use it, but so robust that it can continually yield new features to even the most seasoned of CorelDraw veterans.