Extension to Unlock All Items

britsmith · Post by **britsmith** » 28 Feb 2011, 01:19

It seems to be the 'done' thing nowadays for designers to lock most, if not all, items in their Quark documents before sending them for printing. Whether they think it makes their jobs safer I don't know, but it makes it awkward for me when I have to edit them later. So is there an extension available that will either unlock all items on a page, or throughout an entire document?

max.peter · Post by **max.peter** » 28 Feb 2011, 06:26

What if there are used different layers (or just a single one)? You can block a whole layer with a single click.
HTH

Jean-Marie Schwartz · Post by **Jean-Marie Schwartz** » 28 Feb 2011, 20:13

I would simply run an AppleScript that'd unlock all locked items.

britsmith · Post by **britsmith** » 28 Feb 2011, 23:13

That would be perfect, but I've never really explored AppleScript. Would you write one for me Jean-Marie? I'd be very grateful!

britsmith · Post by **britsmith** » 28 Feb 2011, 23:16

max.peter wrote:What if there are used different layers (or just a single one)? You can block a whole layer with a single click.
HTH

Unfortunately, no, the documents are usually only one layer, and some items are locked and some are not.

Matthias Guenther (Quark) · Post by **Matthias Guenther (Quark)** » 28 Feb 2011, 23:38

Hi britsmith,
how about Command+A and F6 (per spread)?
Regards
Matthias

britsmith · Post by **britsmith** » 28 Feb 2011, 23:58

Thanks Matthias, but will that unlock both the Position and the Content of all boxes, regardless of whether the content is text or graphics?

Matthias Guenther (Quark) · Post by **Matthias Guenther (Quark)** » 01 Mar 2011, 00:47

Hi britsmith,
no, it doesn't. Then you need to a second click (for unlock content).
Out of curiosity, do you have any insight why they do that?
Thanks
Matthias

Jean-Marie Schwartz · Post by **Jean-Marie Schwartz** » 01 Mar 2011, 01:42

britsmith wrote:That would be perfect, but I've never really explored AppleScript. Would you write one for me Jean-Marie? I'd be very grateful!

OK so there you go:

tell application "QuarkXPress"
activate
tell document 1
try
set locked of (every generic box whose locked is true) to false
end try
end tell
end tell

beep 2
Let me know if it does the trick. (Note: depending on the complexity of your doc, it might take a while. It's unpredictable "from here". After the script is done it beeps twice so you know when it's finished.)

britsmith · Post by **britsmith** » 01 Mar 2011, 03:58

Matthias Guenther (Quark) wrote:Out of curiosity, do you have any insight why they do that?

I have no idea, and cannot contact the designers because these files come to me via an intermediate agency. I have the same trouble with InDesign files too, so maybe a design college somewhere is advocating the practice.