QuarkXPress: Tips and Tricks

Convert QXP to Image (JPEG)

Matthias Guenther (Quark) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 05:46:55 GMT

Hi, all,

a few of you have asked how to convert a QuarkXPress layout or portions of it to a pixel image,namely JPEG or TIFF.

Here's how to save a group of elements as JPG (or GIF or PNG):

1. Convert your Print layout to Web layout (by choosing menu "Layout > Layout Properties" and setting layout Type to "Web").

2. Group the elements you want to convert to JPG (eg. the whole page if needed).

3. Open Modify dialog (menu "Item > Modify") and navigate to last tab "Export".

4. Check "Convert to Graphic upon Export".

5. In "Export As" choose "JPEG" (or whatever you desire) and click "Ok". Note (or change) the "File Name"(first field).

6. Choose "File > Export > HTML". Enter the page number you want to export.

7. Look in the Finder/Explorer folder to which you exported. There should be a folder called "image" which contains your group (and has the same file name as set in step 5).

Should work in all versions from QuarkXPress 5 to 8, Mac & Win.

Power Tip
Instead of converting (in step 1) you can also duplicate the layout ("Layout > Duplicate"). If you then synchronize your items (QuarkXPress 7 and 8 only) then you always have a copy from which you can quickly export a JPG, even if the elements in the Print layout have changed.

Enjoy!
Matthias

Move paths from Illustrator to QuarkXPress

Dan Logan (Quark) — Thu, 03 May 2007 09:10:30 GMT

Here's a neat little trick for converting Illustrator paths to editable QuarkXPress paths (actually it works with any application that can paste paths to Photoshop). It requires XPert Box Tools, a component of XPert Tools (free for QuarkXPress 7 users).

1. Select the path in Illustrator and copy it to the clipboard
2. Create a document in Photoshop (size & color model doesn't matter)
3. Open the Paths palette and paste
4. Select Paste As Path in the Paste dialog. This will paste the paths into a new work path.
5. Double-click the work path on the Paths palette to name it and save it
6. Save the image as a TIFF and import it into a QuarkXPress layout
7. From either the Measurements palette or Modify dialog, go to the Clipping tab and select Embedded Path as the Type (it will default to the first path it finds)
8. Select Item > Picture Box Shape From Path > New Box From Clipping Path
9. If necessary use Item > Split to separate compound paths
10. Delete the picture content from the resulting box (I usually change its Content Type to None)
11. Color and style them as needed in QuarkXPress

This technique only works one path at a time, but it can handle compound paths so you can gang up a bunch of paths and convert them all at once if you like. There are also limitations to how closely you can match the styling of the original if it used a thick stroke (since QuarkXPress does inside or outside frames instead of strokes), but if you've ever considered recreating a complex shape in QuarkXPress you'll find this to be a good timesaver.

Dan Logan
Technical Product Management
Quark

Text on a curve

kwiechman — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 00:10:03 GMT

I thought I knew how to do it, but I must have forgotten. How do you create text on a curve ... specifically on the top and bottom of a circle. Thanks for any help you can give me! Karen

Creating a keyboard shortcut for Export to PDF

gprovan — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:43:16 GMT

I've seen a lot of folk bemoaning the lack of keyboard shortcuts for menu items. However, this can be done fairly easily in Leopard. I have created a shortcut to Export to PDF... but this can be done for any menu item.

Just open System Preferences/Keyboard & Mouse/Keyboard Shortcuts

click the + , select Quark from the application dropdown menu

In the menu title dialogue, type Layout to PDF
the dots must be an ellipsis i.e., alt ;

Type your preferred shortcut in the box

Quit Quark and open it again. The shortcut should now be there

Cheers,

Graeme :)

Convert Single Pages to Facing Pages

Terry Smythe — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 21:04:14 GMT

I've developed a 92 page document totally in single page mode. Now I need to convert it to facing page mode for my publisher. Try as I might I cannot find how to do this. Thoughts of others?

Regards,

Terry Smythe

Tip to help you troubleshooting a PDF output failure issue

Jean-Marie Schwartz — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 14:14:17 GMT

If you read this you probably already have encountered such a problem: you want to output a PDF and after some minutes working Quark tells you it cannot output the file. And you have no clue given with this.

So here is a tip that might help you troubleshooting that. Simply output the file in seperate PDF's. It shall take much longer but you'll at least get a message on each page that cannot be output so you can jump there after all the pages have been processed and look further on what could be the problem on that page. Sometimes outputting that page again on its own "fixes" the problem.

Gather then all the files in Acrobat.

How to make a fraction?

CarolD — Tue, 12 Jul 2005 21:54:19 GMT

I know there's a way to do it but there's nothing in "Help" - how do you make a fraction????

A measurement tool à la Photoshop

Jean-Marie Schwartz — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:46:34 GMT

Don't know if it's already been given here but I found a trick to somehow make use of a measurement tool à la Photoshop.

Simply drag a line using Line tool set to First point and you get its length and angle in the Measurement palette. Then Apple-Z or Apple-K.

Hope this helps!

creating a calendar in quark 7

artdept_get noticed — Tue, 26 May 2009 15:24:19 GMT

My company prints yearly calendars for a school. Naturally, each year, the months need to be renumbered. Currently, we use the painful delete and retype method. As far as I can understand, the <#> page numbering tool only works with one text box per page. I would like to be able to simply tell each page in which box to start numbering and have all linked boxes automatically update. This would be a MAJOR help!

Suggestions?

Thanks

A solution to importing Word documents with footnotes

Henry — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 12:04:09 GMT

I've seen a couple of threads about missing or truncated footnote numbers when importing Word documents into Quark. I've experienced the same problem, and wrote a short macro for Word in Microsoft Visual Basic that helps the situation. It does two things: (see the next post for an improved version)

- before each footnote reference in the body text, it inserts the number of the footnote and a '#' character, both in superscript

- at the beginning of each footnote, it inserts the number of the footnote and '##'

This way, footnote references can be easily searched for and recovered even if they get truncated during import. As a plus, superscript formatting gets preserved in the body text if imported right. '##' can be replaced by an appropriate character (I use a nonbreaking n-space).

Here is the script itself:

For i = 1 To ActiveDocument.Footnotes.Count

x$ = Str$(ActiveDocument.Footnotes.Item(i).Index)

ActiveDocument.Footnotes.Item(i).Range.InsertBefore Text:=(x$ + "##")

s = ActiveDocument.Footnotes.Item(i).Reference.Start
Selection.SetRange Start:=s, End:=s
Selection.Font.Superscript = True
Selection.TypeText Text:=(x$ + "#")

Next

In order to use it, in Word, go to Tools -> Macro -> Macros..., type in an appropriate name, click Create, and paste the above text between the Sub and End Sub tags. To run it, make sure the cursor is in the body text (not in the footnotes), select Tools -> Macro -> Macros..., select the macro created, and click Run.

Hope this helps!

Nudging Pictures in Picture Cells

Emma — Tue, 05 May 2009 13:04:32 GMT

It's been bugging me that when I place a picture in a table, I can't adjust its position by using the cursor keys - they take you into an adjacent cell instead.

Today I thought 'I wish Quark had made a way of doing this, if it was me I'd put it on alt +cursor key. I tried it, idly. It worked! Not sure if it's in the help files or not, I can't access them just now.

So: To nudge a picture in a picture cell, use alt (option) plus the cursor key.

Thank you Quark, it only took me about a year to figure that one out!

The Alien still exists!!!

MiguelRocha — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 10:11:04 GMT

It's nice to see that the easter egg "ALIEN" still lives in this QuarkXPress 8.01 version.

For ones who dont know what I'm talking about, select a box, any box and hit Shift+Alt+Cmd+BackSpace.

Cheers!

Convert QXP (layout!) to Image (layered TIFF) - Easter Egg

Matthias Guenther (Quark) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 08:31:04 GMT

Hi, all,

a few of you have asked how to convert a QuarkXPress layout or portions of it to a pixel image,namely JPEG or TIFF.

Here's how to save a complete layout as a (layered) TIFF:

1. Open your (Print) layout.

2. Open PSD Import palette.

3. Hold Option and Shift key and click on the little triangle in the PSD Import palette.
(triangle which normally opens the palette menu)

4. Depending on the size of the document (layout) wait a bit.

5. Navigate to your documents folder (folder "documents" in your "home" folder)

6. In there you'll find a (newly created) folder with the same name as your Project (file) name, which contains one TIFF per page of your current layout.

As these are layered TIFFs, many effects (e.g. drop shadows) are kept either as Photoshop effects or layers.

This works only in QuarkXPress 8 under Mac OS X and is an Easter Egg.
(Beware: Easter Eggs are hidden features which are not formally tested and might have unexpected results or side effects).

Enjoy!
Matthias

Simple curved copy

nikon — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:05:10 GMT

Forum,

Can someone please tell me how to curve copy like you might see on a cap. I can not "draw" a line, I want to make one like a text box, type on it and there you go. Is this possible in Quark 7? Cheap Printshop even seems to do it and yet I can't?

nikon

How to open a picture from the Usage Dialog

Matthias Guenther (Quark) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 10:31:40 GMT

Hi, all,

here's another QuarkXPress 8 Easter Egg.

Place a picture in a layout. How can you find out where the picture resides? Well, either by using Edit Original (and choose the containing folder) or by the Usage Dialog and look at the More Info area.

However in QuarkXPress 8 has another Easter Egg, that allows you to open the picture directly out of the usage Dialog.

How to find the picture directly out of Usage Dialog

1. Select the picture in your layout.

2. Open Picture Usage (picture is automatically selected).

3. Press the command (Apple) key, click on Show.

Restrictions

Works on Mac and Windows but only in QuarkXPress 8.

Enjoy!
Matthias

P.S.: Of course if you just want to pass the picture along, you could just drag it from your layout to the Desktop, which is a new feature of QuarkPress 8. This creates a copy.

How to automatically sync style sheets and colors BETWEEN DOCUMENTS

Matthias Guenther (Quark) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:21:56 GMT

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

Click here to download the Job Jacket archive. Unzip it.
Open the QuarkXPress document in which you want to use shared resources.
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

Importing From Excel to Quark Xpress 8.0

Macman7777 — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:48:14 GMT

I hope this doesn’t sound stupid; I know this has been mentioned by Michel, and he does a superb job of getting this done. I haven’t done that much importing of info from Excel, but I have needed to on occasion and here is what I did. This works only a Mac; at least that is only what I have tried it on. Okay: I open the Excel document and copy the data I need. My example would be a grade book I keep on Excel (I’m a teacher). It was 15 rows by 3 columns. I open TextEdit, and paste it into a new document. Then; I copy what I just pasted, and make a text box in Quark and paste it into there. It comes in as “tab delimited” and then I just select all of the text, set some tabs, and re-arrange the tabs as needed. For me; it works very well. I don’t know why. I can’t paste directly from Excel to Quark, but using the intermediary of TextEdit seems to make it more manageable. So; I hope this useful for someone.

redirecting Quark to pictures in another folder

Amnesty08 — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:58:44 GMT

Hi there

I usually put draft images into Quark while doing a layout. When it's final I then need to redirect Quark to a folder containing different versions of the same images (high-res, CMYK, etc).

I used to be able to rename the folder & then redirect Quark to a new folder in Usage but Quark 7 seems to be wise to that trick and keeps track of where the original, draft images are.

Is there another way of getting it to update to the new image files (apart from importing them all again)?

Mac OSX 10.5, Quark 7.31

Thanks

Ultra zoom...

Ben Neary — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 19:12:46 GMT

Hello all
Not a Quark thing (its actually a Mac setting - you can use it in any program really!) but if you need to zoom in that bit further than Quark allows then alt apple and + allows you zoom RIGHT in (- for zoom out). Found this by accident and quite useful. You lot probably already know this. I'm a bit slow catching up sometimes! Hope this of some help to those out there who haven't found this yet!
Regards
Ben

Master pages based on master pages

Matthias Guenther (Quark) — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 17:51:01 GMT

Often we hear the request to be able to base master pages on master pages.

This is especially important when you e.g. have a publication that has a common page header, e.g. "Quark News" and the current date, but each section, e.g. Sports, Technology etc. has different master pages.

It would be a nightmare to have to go through ten master pages and change the page header on all 10 (facing pages: 20) master pages. Instead it woudl be nice to build a master where all common elements are placed and the sub master pages reference this.

As good as it sounds it creates quite some administrative overhead to figure out what comes from where.

The question remains how to do this in QuarkXPress. It is possible since version 6, even better in version 7.

Here's how:
1. Create your first master page and place everything on there, specifics for this section as well as common elements (e.g. date).

2. Now synchronize all boxes and/or content which are common by using the "Shared content" palette. In 6 only text content, in 7 now you can even only synchronize the box shapes and leave the content specific or vice versa.

3. Build your next master page (section specific), onyl create specific elements (e.g. section header) from scratch, for the common elements use the "Shared Content" palette to drag and drop the common elements on here.

4. Done.

Now you have almost the same effect as master-pages-based-on-master-pages, the same time saver, but a - in my opinion - much easier way of creating and especially maintaining the common elements, ensuring always consistency.

Only notable restriction I can think of is the missing position of objects (so x/y-coordinates), only geometry (width/height) can be stored in shared objects. And, with object styles of XPert Tools you might want to solve that one.

Enjoy!
Matthias

P.S.: Yes, it is "just" a workaround, but an easy one and good if you don't want to wait until a future version of QuarkXPress offers this valid feature request.

How to move tabs around

Matthias Guenther (Quark) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 10:32:15 GMT

Hi, all,

here's another QuarkXPress 8 Easter Egg.

Since version 6 QuarkXPress can contain different layouts in one file (called project), so that you can have pages with different sizes within the same file and synchronize design and content.

These layout tabs are shown above the layout itself (in v6 and 7 underneath). The order of the layouts cannot be changed, it stays as created.

Version 8 has an Easter Egg, that allows you to resort them. Remember, Easter Eggs are not supported, not documented features that might have side effects.

How to resort layouts

Press the command (Apple) key, click and drag on a layout tab.

Restrictions

Only works on Mac, only in QuarkXPress 8. Also, this only changes the order of the layout tabs while you work on it, it does not save the order. So when you reopen, the order is restored to the initial order. Still, can be handy sometimes.

Enjoy!
Matthias

QuarkXPress 8: Creating a custom color scheme (Easter Egg)

Matthias Guenther (Quark) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 11:33:44 GMT

Hi, all:

Though I am far away from the impressive post counts of migman, Linda, Erik, Michel, Greg and others (again, thank you all for your support and dedication!), I thought I post something special for my 600th post:

Revealing an Easter Egg for QuarkXPress 8

Disclaimer
Easter Eggs are non-documented features, which are also not officially supported, so please do not call tech support about this. Also, using this Easter Egg might have undesired side effects, therefore by using this you agree to use it at your own risk! Furthermore there is no guarantee that it will still work in future versions or updates.

Warning
Though it is unlikely that you will damage your system, application or data, you can actually make QuarkXPress unusable, e.g. black labels on black background. However it is easy to reset to the default color scheme by the steps provided below.

Limitations
Some parts of the palettes might not change, as they come from the Operating System and therefore cannot by changed by this file. Especially when also modifying the color scheme of the dialogs of QuarkXPress this is noticeable. Refer to the documentation of your operating system how to possibly change this too.
Also, the file does not alter the icons of the application and not every aspect of the UI can be set.

Enough said, here’s how:

Custom Color Scheme
By creating a text file and using XML tags it is possible to change the color scheme of QuarkXPress 8 (release version). If you just want to try it, it will also work with the 60-day Test Drive of QuarkXPress.

All you need to do is:
1.   Stop QuarkXPress 8.
2.   Create a text file called “XPressTheme.xml“. Best download and modify the one provided here.
3.   Use the XML formatting and tags that can be found in the example. make sure you do not break the XML.
4.   Put the file “XPressTheme.xml“ into the preference folder (where the preference folder is can be found here).
5.   Restart QuarkXPress 8.

This works under Mac OS X as well as under Windows.

The XML tags should be self-explanatory. If not, please change the values e.g. to 0/0/0, restart XPress and observe the changes.

Example
See below.

Reset
Resetting QuarkXPress 8 to its default color scheme is easy:
1. Delete the file “XPressTheme.xml“ from your preference folder.
2. Restart QuarkXPress.

Competition
As I am personally looking for some nice and interesting color schemes, which I can use for demos or as examples, I would like to call a competition:
Please post your nicest or most creative color scheme here, either as a link or as text in your post and ideally also with screenshot. Give it a name, so it is easily referenced (such as „Nightwatch Scheme“).

By posting it here you agree that I can do whatever I like with your color you created.

The best two (and I am the jury ;-) will get an iTunes Gift Voucher from me personally, worth $25 and $15. Of course you are allowed to influence my vote (by emotionally cheering for the candidates).

This Matthias Color Competition ends Aug 31, 2008.

Example: “Nightwatch”
Config:

Click here.

Screenshot:

Enjoy
Matthias

Multiple Languages, possible fix for non-Passport editions

eyoungren — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:29:07 GMT

Here's a fix I happened into twice in the last 2 weeks, for getting out of the sudden multiple language problem(s) when you only have a non=passport edition of XPress. I know it works for me at least.

Usually, I run into these problems because of the garbage that Word files carry around. I had one file that when copied and pasted into my document all of a sudden converted my XPress document into a multi-language file. I had imported this Word document into a fresh unsaved XPress doc with Style sheets preserved. I do this so I can get the italics and bolding (and underlines) from legal documents. I then eliminate the style sheets and then copy and paste the end result into my real document.

But as I said, this time I got a mult-language error. Well, I couldn't save the document because of this, BUT, I could export all that text I had pasted. So, I tried that and exported the copy as a Word 6.0/95 document. I then closed my XPress document, re-opened the XPress document and then reimported the new Word 6.0/95 document with style sheets and everything was fine. I got all my styles, without the unwanted style sheets and the Word garbage that was causing my XPress document to go multi-language was eliminated.

I thought I might pass that along to anyone struggling out there. It may work for you.

The useful alien

Andrew Herzog — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 01:10:09 GMT

There was that time we had a box that was corrupt and if you tried to delete it with CMD-K or Delete Qjuark would freeze.

So on a whim we tried the alien. He actually never showed his face, but the box did delete.

Andrew Herzog

Merging data into Quark documents

chamberman — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 17:15:24 GMT

Hi,

Our executive director wants to personalize things like postcards, flyers, etc. with person's name or company. Short of doing each one individually (more than 1000) every time, is there something we are missing in Quark that allows us to merge data? Or is there an extension available that would do this? As a nonprofit, cost is a factor. Thanks in advance for your help!