Quark Forums

I am probably jumping the gun here but I cant see anything about any new features for QID in quark 8.
I know its going to be intergrated but apart from that what else. I havent seen anything at all in any of the press reports
it would be nice to see some advancement as ID has been here for sometime now ( around 2 years) with no real jump forward. Or am I wrong and I just havnt seen the relevent reports that list the new listed features.

max 

Hi, max,

mad max:

it would be nice to see some advancement

 

What enhancements would you like to see?

Best
Matthias

Hi Matthias Sorry it's taken an absolute age to get back but the holidays work load, etc has kept me busy beyond belief anyway there were 2 areas I was wondering 1) The ability to write and add scripts 2) Even though I can export as an .swf and I can convert this .swf into an fla via flash decompiler. The result crashes flash (though it does open the file), if I try to change anything. I cant even copy and paste text without it knocking flash over. The reason behind this question is it would save us huge amounts of time if we could use Quarks greater typographical and layout tools and then get those items into flash without flash crashing. At the moment we design in photoshop, illustrator and Quark and then have to recreate all the layouts in flash and as you can imagine replicating the typographical layout items is a nightmare in Flash. Anyway just a few thoughts max

Hi, Max,

happy new year to you first!

mad max:

1) The ability to write and add scripts

With that do you mean the ability to code ActionScripts (like in Adobe Fl) or to improve the existing scripting UI? 

2) It would save us huge amounts of time if we could use Quarks greater typographical and layout tools and then get those items into flash without flash crashing.

True, great use case. However Adobe (and Macromedia before) has never opened the specs of FLA, it is unfortunately a proprietary, closed, unsupported format.

Only with CS4 Adobe introduced an open exchange format that seems to be supported and documented (called XFL). It is too early to say yet, whether we will support XFL in the future.

Best
Matthias

Hi Matthias happy new year to you too

With that do you mean the ability to code ActionScripts (like in Adobe Fl) or to improve the existing scripting UI?

either... though I would imagine being able to write scripts from scratch and add them to the available ones within quark would open up a huge amount of possibilities for third party developers.... just a thought.

True, great use case. However Adobe (and Macromedia before) has never opened the specs of FLA, it is unfortunately a proprietary, closed, unsupported format.

Thats typical from Adobe/macromedia but at least the new XFL format may be a viable route in the future in allowing the advantages of using quarks superior typographical tools. Cheers for coming back so quick and all the best max

Actually there is one more question I do plan to update the swf output to version 9 so people can use the new .fl4 format ?

Hi, Max,

mad max:

...so people can use the new .fl4 format ?

 

Please enlighten me, what's the new fl4 format and its benefit? Or do you mean f4l?

Thanks
Matthias

Sorry Matthias
I was writing so quickly that I didn't check what I had written
I meant the new F4V format which requires flash version 9 and makes use of the H.264 video codec.
I know it's probably a big jump from the flash version 7 output but I was just wondering if this was something that was in the pipe lines at some time.

all the best max

ps did you know this message area doesnt work completely in safari... I assume you do

max

Hi, max,

mad max:

I meant the new F4V format...

Too many formats... 

Here's an independent view (and not necessarily mine) on F4V: http://www.brooksandrus.com/blog/2008/12/07/f4v-is-retarded/

I see your point though. Do you just need support for playing F4V or also an encoder (as we currently offer for SWFV and FLV)?
If the former, I might have a workaround (hack) for you.

ps did you know this message area doesnt work completely in safari...

Yes, our forums software unfortunately doesn't like line breaks in Safari. So you either need to insert tags yourself (p and br) or use Firefox/Mac.

Best
Matthias

What I doing is creating some test movies in premiere and exporting to this new format just to see if I could play the F4V item within quark, but if you have a hack that gets around the encoder needing to be version 9 then that would be fine

cheers max 

Hi, max,

I do not have a workaround for creating F4V, I have a hack for getting them to play inside SWFs created by QuarkXPress.

Best
Matthias

Thats great I have the F4V already made so if you know how to make them play within Quark then thats perfect...

is it just changing the file extension?

 

max

Hi, max,

mad max:

is it just changing the file extension?

 

Now, that would be too easy.

Inside QuarkXPress just "import" the F4V file into a video object via the "External Reference" method (as you woudl with FLV) and export the SWF.

What you need to do next is to change the finally exported SWF file to tell Flash Player, that you are using a newer SWF version. It is a bit risky, as Flash Player will assume it is newer Action Script and interprete all of the code to the new version.

So please use this with care and test your SWF carefully, as it is a completely unsupported hack.

The way you do that:
1. Open the SWF in a binary hex editor.
2. Change the forth byte from 07 to 09.
3. Save.
4. Test well.

Enjoy!
Matthias

Hi Matthias

I have just been playing with this and as you said its needs to be done with care. though its fairley straight farward, so cheer.. :o)

I did just tried something else and I did get the same F4V file to play without using a hex editor. What I did was replace the file extension to .mp4 then referenced that in Quark though I did have to view all files.

Then published. Now this worked and I didnt need the Hex hac. Do you know what the implication of this may be? it is working though I cant tell if its using Quicktime to play the movie or Flash.... how can I find out.

max

 

Hi, max,

I don't know why Flash Player allows playing this inside an SWF7. Is it just playing the MP4 or is it playing the MP4 within the SWF?

Maybe you could ask this in an Adobe forum, we can't explain why Flash Player behaves this way.

Thanks
Matthias

 

P.S.: I tried splitting this post, however the forums software behaved strangely, so I merged them again (which seem to have worked).

After testing the above on a server it turned out that when I viewed the quark flash item with the mp4 item within it,  it failed to show the movie though when I checked it locally it worked fine.

So I am assuming quicktime which can play mp4's was kicking in when viewing it locally.

So  Matthias... it looks like your easy hack is the only way.

Cheers for all your help and I look forward to any improvments in the future

Max