Quark Forums

Hi, all:

Have you ever had the need to synchronize colors and style sheets over several documents? Sure, you could use books or the Append feature, but that's manual and requires somebody to actually do the synchronization and have all documents available.

Since QuarkXPress 7 there's a much easier way, using Job Jackets.

As setting this up might take a minute, I have created such a Job Jacket, which allows you to test this. (If anybody is interested, I can create an additional small tutorial on how to create something like this.)

So here's the gem, the ready-to-use Job Jacket and instructions on how to use.

How to use

1. Click here to download the Job Jacket archive. Unzip it.
2. Open the QuarkXPress document in which you want to use shared resources.
3. Attach the JJ to the document by choosing "File > Job Jackets > Link Project…" and navigating to the JJ (with the Browse… button). Click "Attach". And you are done!
   

Open e.g. your color palette. I have pre-created three spot colors and three proces colors in there. Same for paragraph and character style sheets. There's no difference in using these colors, style sheets, H&Js and other resources. use as you would normally work with QuarkXPress. Only for better visibility I have called them "Shared: <something>".

If you now redefine e.g. such a color (and with that I mean change the color definition), then this color changes automatically in all projects that are connected to this Job Jacket. It should happen within 6 seconds.

Note that of course the file (QuarkXPress project) needs to be open and have read connection to the JJ. Also note, that all other resources e.g. colors (that you define "locally") are NOT pushed to the other projects.

Warnings

• Changes of the shared resources happen without warning. Anyone who has write access to the Job Jacket can redefine them.
• I have never tested this with "mixed" workflows (e.g. using the JJ with QuarkXPress 7 and 8 projects).

Limitations

• You need QuarkXPress 7.x or 8.x, earlier versions of QuarkXPress do not work.
• Deleting a shared resource does not delete it from the Job Jacket.
• Adding resources to the project does not add them automatically to the Job Jacket. You need to modify the JJ (let me know if you want to know how).
  

Additional tricks

• You should be able to rename your resources and they stay synced. However naming conventions are helpful to distinguish global resources (in JJ) from local resources (in project).
• If you dont want to "Browse" to the JJ every time, put it in your Default JJ Folder (e.g. Documents).
• If you want to use this in your organization, put the JJ on a server.
• If you have different jobs, duplicate the JJ and use one per job (where all projects of that job connect to their specific JJ).
• If you need "rights", e.g. only Art Director should be allowed to redefine style sheets, then put the JJ on a server, where you work with access rights to files. Give read rights to everybody and read/write rights only to the Art Director.

Let me know if there are questions.

Enjoy!
Matthias