Quark Forums

Hi, all,

"Fit Box to Picture" probably everybody knows, as it is in the contextual menu of picture boxes since QuarkXPress 6. This is not available for text boxes though, which sometimes would be nice.

To achieve this, you can use XPert Tools Box Tools (Fit Text), which gives you a handy palette that snaps one edge of a text box to fit the text, you can choose which edge (bottom, right and also top and left).

Great if you also want to adjust text boxes to the amount of text (similar to picture boxes to the picture).

What is even cooler though is to have text boxes which AUTOMATICALLY adjust to the text amount.

How's that possible? It's easy, just use a table.

Here's how:
Create a table with ONE column and ONE row and - depending on which edge you want to automatically grow - choose "autofit rows" or "autofit columns".

Example: I want to create a text box that automatically adjusts in length
1. Select table tool, draw a table
2. In dialog that opens enter rows: 1, columns: 1
3. Select "Auto Fit Rows"
4. Click OK and you are done.

Now when you enter more text than the "text box" would hold, you do not get the overflow symbol, instead the text box grows automatically.

Enjoy!
Matthias

Thaks for the tip but I can't get it to shrink the cell if you remove text. For example if I paste in text from Word wih extra returns the cell expands to fit the text but if I then remove the extra returns the cell does not shrink back down and I manually have to resize each row

So.. how can I make it auto skrink? (Oherwise the feature should only be called Auto Expand, not Auto Fit)

Hi, Evans,

you are right, table rows and columns can only automatically grow not shrink. Nice feature suggestion for the next versions.

evans:

the feature should only be called Auto Expand, not Auto Fit

Good point.

Thanks
Matthias

Greetings -

If you remove text from the table-auto text box - and you want to shrink the box back to fit, simply drag the bottom handle up just over the last line of text - and it will re-fit automatically.

Shellie

Shellie,

Thanks for the tip. I figured that out. However in my opinion it is called Auto Fit so it should automatically shrink to fit the text. It's not a big deal if you do it once or twice, but when you have to do it a lot when bring ino text from Word it gets repetitive/boring very quickly.

If you have to drag the bottom handle up it is merely auto expanding so the it shoudln't be calle Auto Fit It should be called Auoto Expand since that's the only Auto part.

Cheers

...Steve

I agree with you! Maybe that can be a feature request (or a bug fix) for our next version.

Shellie

I'm working on a method that uses Xtags (Pro version) and the table Auto Fit feature to create "grow-to-fit" single-cell anchored tables so I can programatically apply highlighting, special underlines, etc. to single words or short phrases within differently-styled paragraphs.

I'm working in QXP 6.5, OS X.

I'm trying to figure out how Quark sets the Maximum size for the Auto Fit settings shown on the Cell page of the Modify dialog for the Table Tool Preferences.

In one test, I made Auto Fit tables 6p, 12p, and 18p wide, then brought into each a line of text about 45p long. The two smaller boxes only grew to 3 times their original measure, and didn't fit the line of text.

In other instances, the relation between the original size of the table and the size where it stops Auto Fitting is even more obscure. However, the final size shows up in the Maximum setting window on the Cell page of the table Modify dialog.

In every instance, I'm working with single-cell tables, and the table and cell start out with the same width measurement.

Any information would be greatly appreciated. I'm also curious, is it possible to set default Autofit maximum widths? When I try, these options are always grayed out, but perhaps I'm approaching it incorrectly.

Hi, Elpy,

elpy zee:

I'm working on a method that uses Xtags (Pro version) ... I'm working in QXP 6.5, OS X .... Any information would be greatly appreciated.

I am not sure I understand how you want us to help you.

Are you looking for help with Xtags Pro? Or AppleScript? Or do you want to know about boundaries in vanilla QuarkXPress?

Thanks
Matthias

What I'm looking for here is a better understanding of the Auto Fit setting for table cells in QXP 6.5.

As mentioned in my earlier post, I've done some tests, strictly in Quark using only Quark tools, in which the Auto Fit ability to grow table cells seemed to be limited to growing to 3 times the size I originally drew the table (and the cell inside, these are all single-cell tables).

At other times, table cells grow less than needed, though there appears to be space on the page and the pasteboard. They don't grow 3 times the original, they just grow some, and not enough to fit the text, which is less than a line in length.

I'm also wondering if there's a way to set the Auto Fit maximum sizes as default settings, say in a template, so every table (cell) I bring into the document would then have that maximum setting for Auto Fit.
Many thanks for your help,
Peter

Hi,
Let me see if I can help.
Since you are using QuarkXPress 6.5, you must be using the Tables Technology Preview XTension (Required Component) downloaded from our website. In this XTension, I believe the Column Width maximum is set to 3 times the column width at the time the table is created. If you happen to resize the table so that the column widths become wider than that original maximum, then the Maximum will be set to equal the column width. You can modify the maximum value by checking (activating) Auto Fit for column width and typing a new value.

The row height maximum follows the same principle. However, in this 6.5 XTension the Maximum is set to the spread height. Thus, if your table happens to be on the page and you try to type in the maximum value in the row height field, you will get an error because the table cannot grow off the page. This was changed in QuarkXPress 7.0 where the feature was merged into the main product. The row height maximum is set at 3 times the original row height. Also, if the table is created where 3 times the row height is more than the spread height, then the maximum will be set to the spread height. The difference here though is that in 7, tables may extend beyond the pasteboard boundaries of the spread.

You won't be able to set a preference for the maximum value in Tool preferences because we didn't want to create invalid values if a large max was input and a small dimension layout was created. You could however, create a template or a Library that contained tables with specific original dimensions that would give you the maximum values that you need.

Oh, one other note. We originally specified Auto Fit to include the "shrinking" capability. Due to time constraints it was scoped out of the release and other priorities have bumped this part of the feature out of each release since.

Hope this was helpful.
Scott Wieseler
QuarkXPress Technical Product Management

Yes, Scott, your explanation was helpful--I didn't know what was controlling the Auto Fit behavior, now I have a better idea. Thanks for posting

 been working thru your suggestion on here and obviously the shrinking thing is a main issue...

Is there away that you would know if we could organise one field in txt length that way I can setup my document that all the small ones print first and it as the print run gets longer i.e 2000 records the last one would be the biggest...

 As we import this into a program called Darwin I wanted to know if there was a way in Quark or even Excel, as Darwin doesnt.

Do I understand you right, that you are looking for a way in Excel to sort strings by their length?

If yes, then if the strings are not too long, create a new column and create a formula "=len(A1)" (A1 being your referenced cell).Repeat for all your rows.

Sort by that column and you are done.

Hope this helps
Matthias