Quark Forums

 Hi,

 I am currently using/testing the demo version of QXP 8 and face a problem with one of my AppleScripts. When addressing a named text box with the command «set story 1 to ""» to empty the contents of the text box, then QXP 8 will show the spinning beach ball and I have to force quit the application. Am I missing some new syntax to empty a text box with AppleScript?

 Thanks in advance for all insights :-)

 Martin

Hi Martin!

Not to help you I'm facing the same problem with Quark 8: each time I set text (with AppleScript), even in a fresh new project, totally virgin, Quark8 freezes. I have no time to investigate further so I keep on using 7.5 so far because I have several scripts that help me so much. It's a pity.

Have you tried on your side setting text in a virgin document? Maybe you'll be more lucky and your problem would be related to sth else. Let us know!

 I just tested with a brand new Quark doc, named the text box "My_Box" and put some text in it. Ran the following:

tell document 1 of application "QuarkXPress"
     tell text box "My_Box"
          set story 1 to ""
     end tell
end tell

 - text vanished, no beach ball. So the problem may be elsewhere. Can you post the whole script?

Hi Jean-Marie,

It gets even more confusing: After reading your message I tried to empty a text box in a virgin document and...it works. The problem seems only to occur with my existing documents. Nevertheless this makes QXP 8 useless for us (until they fix this issue) :-(

 Please let me ask you something: Is QXP 7.5 stable/reliable as far as the AppleScript support is concerned?

 Thank you very much for your help!

 Martin

 Hi Emma,

The whole script just looks like your sample script. Only the text box name is "Test box" instead of "My_Box" :D

 The documents I am opening with QXP 8 were actually created with QXP 3. QXP 8 opens and saves them just fine.

 But after investigating my problem a bit further, I can tell you that I cannot empty existing text boxes in these documents. Now, when I create a new named text box in such an existing document, then I can also empty it using AppleScript.

So it seems the problem is related to only the existing text boxes...

Martin Michel:

Is QXP 7.5 stable/reliable as far as the AppleScript support is concerned?

Sure it is. In the limits of Quark AppleScript support. But one can do a lot with AS.

 OK, I'm joining the club. I can't  set story 1 to anything, or even get its properties. As of today. Yesterday it worked. Has been working for months.

 What is going on? Matthias, have Quark employees anything to suggest here?

 There is a script in the default scripts folder with Quark which does what my script does (I never noticed it, just used my own!). It causes Quark to quit too, presumably when it comes to the 'set story' bit.

When I open that script in Script Editor, there is a bit of a clue, as one line reads:

     set «class STDR» of story 1 of nameBox to false

I wonder which property that should be?

 To all affected by this problem: Can you try re-installing Quark? I had a back-up version on my hard drive and that behaves perfectly.

 Something gets corrupted and causes this problem. I trashed a Prefs files but there are loads of prefs and I didn't really know where to look.

Emma:

When I open that script in Script Editor, there is a bit of a clue, as one line reads:

     set «class STDR» of story 1 of nameBox to false

I wonder which property that should be?

Hum! I'm afraid this is related to sth different. It occurs when Quark app has quit. Then you have to relaunch both SE and Quark in order to get it decrypted again (or to relaunch your account?).

As far as I remember I tried that if not at first at least in the first instances. With no luck. But on your word I shall give it a new shot. I'll let you know about it.