Quark Forums

Having spell check check for capitalization errors is an interesting feature, but I would love to see it optional. I frequently have to manually break lines, and it's time consuming to do a spell check and have five errors show up, when it's only capitalization. Also, spell check used to keep the correct capitalization of a misspelled word; Quark 7 only offers the correct spelling in lower case (Tummor is corrected to tumor, not Tumor.) It would be nice to have it changed back, so that a misspelled capitalized word retains its cap.

I agree that the capitalization feature in spell check should be optional. Frankly, I am finding this feature to be rather aggravating. I also have to frequently manually break lines, especially when typesetting forms, and this feature is making it difficult for me to spell check my documents. For example, I was working on a form this morning and the spell check came back with 77 possible errors. Only 3 of them were possible misspelled words and 73 of them were capitalization errors that I had to weed through, none of which was actually an error. I hope Quark comes out with an update to allow for this feature to be turned off, because it is time consuming and very annoying to me! If anyone knows of a way to bypass this feature now, your help would be greatly appreciated.

I agree with the preceding posts in this thread. Quark's addition of the mandatory capitalization checker has turned spell checking into a long, extended, exhausting, carpal-tunnel-syndrome-inducing chore. I still feel obligated to perform spell check to catch that one error that may have crept in, but now have to set aside a big chunk of time to skip over the capitalization "errors" that are not errors. I have received many emails from Quark about version 8. Send me an email proclaiming that spell checker has regained its sanity and only stops for misspelled words and I will be quick to upgrade.

Yes, please let us disable this annoying "feature".

This is one of the worst features so far. I can't help but wonder who adds these features? Do they consult artists at all? I'm working on huge catalogs at my company. Each page has a footer that includes our website. So ".com" is picked up by "spell check" as an error in spacing. Each book that we sell also lists an author - our company style insists that the books are "by" an author as opposed to "By" an author. So for each and every book that we list, (and there are thousands and thousands) the "spell check" catches "by" as being inappropriate capitalization. It's driving me crazy. I have to hit skip thousands of times... Are you kidding me? That alone makes me want to throw in the towel on this program.

I am in 100% agreement. Quark has the worst spell check of any software period. The fact that this software is designed for publishing and yet has such an outdated and non-functioning spell check feature is an absolute joke! I work in an academic setting producing many large catalogs and documents. Thousands of websites, list of people's names, foot notes, etc. The spell check prior to this latest version was minimal, but at least it didn't stop at every bleeping word! Trying spell checking a 50 page document that is essentially a list of thousands of university donor names … it's sheer hell. I attended a Quark 8 unveiling (same spell check as 7 I'm told) and asked one of the reps about the spell check feature. His reply was that we should keep contacting Quark about it so they will direct some resources at fixing it. They claim that Quark 8 is all about making the software more efficient to use, but you did nothing to fix this crappy time-wasting spell check feature. This may be the very thing that finally drives me to InDesign. Quark, are you listening?

I actually had the opportunity to meet with a Quark representative years ago when they were switching to Quark 5, I believe. At that point I was simply asking for spell check to have the ability to go backward - or at least to let you know of the 300 errors found, which number you were currently on. There are many times I'm skipping through spellcheck when suddenly I realize I might have missed something... The only option is to completely start over. At that point the guy got uncomfortable and said that he didn't think it was a good idea or necessary. So no, I don't think they're listening.

Hi, Lander,

Lander Journal:

Having spell check check for capitalization errors is an interesting feature, ...

As mentioned somewhere before, for some languages (not English) it is actually not only an interesting feature, it is required.

... but I would love to see it optional.

 

You are right, we should have made that optional from the beginning. However, it is a preference in the upcoming 8.01 update that we'll  release this week.

Best
Matthias

Hello Matthias: When I attended the Global tour in NYC this summer, there was some talk about also including the spell check capitalization preference option in an upcoming update for Quark 7. Is this included in the QX7.5 updater? I installed 7.31 when it first came out, but it slowed my work down so much that I had to go back to 7.3. I would love to update to QX8, but I am only an end-user, and have to wait until the powers-that-be at my workplace are ready to upgrade us. : (

Hi, onebug,

I wasn't at the NYC event, so I cannot comment on what was said there.

The option is not in QuarkXPress 7.5.Should we decide to release another update of QuarkXPress 7, then of course we will incorporate this option in there also.

Currently there are no plans to release another update of QuarkXPress 7, version 7.5 is the last update. Of course we constantly monitor your - our customer's - feedback to be able to make the right decisions.

Please try v7.5, it fixes a lot of things (over 7.3). I'd be especially interested whether you see a slowdown there too (and in what area).

Best
Matthias

Hello Matthias: The talk about spell check options was not part of the actual presentation in NYC, but was touched on in the Q & A at the end, when several of us were speaking to one of the tech reps. I was pleased that he said there was still going to be one more update to QX7, even though version 8 had launched. What I would really like to see is an option to keep the spell check, but turn off the grammar-checking aspects in general. I have the same issues as Cynthia, Lander, and phoughto (but not his anger). I work in the production department of a technical book publisher, and although we go by the Chicago Manual of Style, we also have our own style guide, and Quark's "improved" spell checker doesn't agree with us much of the time. I have made my own "dictionary" of technical terms, etc. and I need to spell check my work, but I would rather be able to leave the grammar checking to our proofing department. For me it is not the 7.31 update that makes Quark slow down, it is all the times the spell checker stops for things that are not wrong according to our company style guide that makes me slow down. If I want to try v7.5, do I have to install 7.31 again, or can I go right from 7.3 to 7.5? Thanks.

Sorry to come in late to this thread, but I was just browsing old threads and saw you mention that you often have to "manually break lines".

Do you know you can do this by inserting "discretionary hyphens" at suitable points in the words you want to break (Command-hyphen on a Mac, presumably Control-hyphen under Windows).

This causes Quark to hyphenate at the point indicated (or the last one that fits if you put several in the same word) but in a "soft" way so that if the line later reflows due to other edits, the hyphen and line-break miraculously disappear!

Also, the "soft-hyphenated" word appears in spellchecking as if it had never been broken.

At least, this all works for me (even if hyphenation is "off" in Edit H&J's) up to QuarkXPress 6.5, Mac, International English.

Hope this helps.   PHILIP

Thank you, Philip for your suggestion. I do already know about discretionary hyphens, and use them (as well as non-breaking spaces) to control text fit and flow when necessary. The problem I have is with the old-style tables (made by manually tabbing, and ending a line with a soft return instead of using the text to table feature) that our writers create in Word and that I then have to import into Quark. Quark's grammar checker stops at the beginning of each line after the soft return and suggests that the new line begin with a capital letter. Some of these text-heavy tables are up to 20 pages long and result in Quark finding 350+ "mistakes," which I then have to "skip." It would be so much better to be able to turn off the grammar checker and just check the spelling! I am happy to say that since my original post, I have finally (after trying for several years) persuaded the writers to use Word's text to table feature for new tables they create. Then I use Quark's text to table feature on their imported Word file. I've created a couple of matching Word/Quark styles that I use to control the tables, so things are getting better. We do a lot of repurposing and revision of old files, though, so there are still a lot of old-style tables that I have to contend with. It takes hours -- and I want minutes! Now I am wishing and waiting for Quark to improve the tables feature to include table styles similar to InDesign's so I can quickly style my tables. I tried experimenting with Quark 8's new item styles, but they don't seem to work within a table. Thanks again, though for your suggestion. ONEBUG