Quark Forums

i used 5.5 & 6 for awhile a few years ago and have now been given 7.2 this morning to start converting our local magazine for our website

aside from the nightmare of them producing on mac, having different fonts etc etc i noticed that when i change the layout from print to web the text boxes default to "export as graphic"

is there a way of setting up so that when i open their quark file and change to web it automatically defaults to "text" rather than graphics ?

also this maybe because i havent rtfm yet ;), but can i set up my default stylesheet (and web layout?) and apply it when i open their quark files?

i realise the learning curve i have but if i can sort these 2 out quickly i can start with the 200 articles they gave me this morning ;)

thanks for any pointers

Hi adeibiza,

Thanks for the great post!

Unfortunately the print to web conversion defaults to converting text boxes to images and it's a default which cannot be changed via a preference or some other automated process. You will have to convert each text box individually.

The easiest way to do so (that I have found) is using the item tool, double-click the text box. You can simply uncheck the "Convert to graphic" checkbox in the bottom left of the dialog which appears. Now, you will probably immediately notice that the text resizes and reflows, so some adjustment of the size of that text box and some copyfitting will probably be necessary.

The reason we convert text to graphics by default is mainly to preserve the print fidelity and any print specific typographic features (e.g. some typefaces, kerning, leading, swashes/ligatures, etc.) which may be applied to the text in a format that will display correctly on the web (i.e. and image). This is one big area of difference between web and print designers... Web designers usually just accept text reflow as no big deal because the browser's displayed page size can/will simply adjust and they account for it in their designs... whereas print folks tend to need exact control over text flow since their layouts are physically size restricted to the paper size. Since QuarkXPress is primarily a print application, we tended to lean toward the print designer's viewpoint.

With that said, your request for a way to do this automatically for an entire layout upon conversion to web is a great feature request for the Web Layout space. I have noted it and will be sure to try and get it into a future version.

As for application of a default stylesheet for web, this is a little tougher because the application currently doesn't have a way of knowing what content needs to be styled (like say a body of text) and what information needs to preserve its styling as it is (like say a headline, callout box or caption). Right now we are working on ways to make our layouts more intelligent to accomplish this type of thing, but currently we don't have this capability.

I wish I had better answers for you but thanks again for your great post!
-Drew

thank you for your reply

i know its a nightmare trying to please print people and web people at the same time - its almost an impossible task ;)

the ideal would be a preference in set up - ie "treat text boxes as a graphic" or "treat text boxes as text"

like you say, print design is restricted by physical space whereas web isn't

the thing is that the print to web creates overlays for the "text" anyway so it doesnt matter whether its a graphic or not - for a web designer, type as a graphic is a complete nightmare - since you cant change it or style it

eg, i have a lovely 4 page spread with captions etc etc - atm i have to go to each box and uncheck - that 2 clicks per box, when you have 10 or so boxes per page.....

(and i have tried asking them to change their entire workflow, layout and setup so it would make my life easier but you can imagine their response..... ;) )

 Hi,

 

I'm new to this so excuse if I'm in the wrong place!

I've used QXP 7 to produce web sites, and all is fine as long as they are viewed by other Macs.

However when viewed on PC's the outline of all the text boxes can be seen when over a jpg picture background even though the text boxes are set to zero width and "none" colour.

Any ideas for a solution.

Many thanks

BrianG