Here is the main window of CorelDraw. You see mine is in French, but the icons and the shortcuts are the same and I will translate the menu each time.
When you open CorelDraw! the first time, a wonderful and really complete tutorial is presented at the right hand, in a special dock (with the orange arrow). If you close it, you could find it back when you want just by clicking HELP > CorelTUTOR
You could add/erase/place the icons exactly how you want by clicking on TOOLS > CUSTOMIZE
I customise completely the interface, everything is possible and I use often the icons or the keypad shortcuts.
Well, now we are going to open a new document (CTRL+N or icon or Menu FILES>NEW), a blank one.
You could adjust the page, by default it is in A4.
Here I choose inch (pouces) as unit and 12"x12" as size. I save it as the default page by clicking twice on the border of the page, a new windows opens where I could save it. I call it "SCRAP 12x12"
I could begin a new LayOut now by calling it back when I want as the default page!!!