I recentl redicosvered a copy of Quark XPress 5.0 from my previous installation of Windows. Now that I've loaded it again, I seem to be gradually trying to figure out hwo to use it. Some questions come to mind, though, like why the "Get text" function doesn;t pick up the text and formatting of the file I select and I have to cut-and-paste the file into its document instead. It just seems like a lot of extra work.

I'm also trying to figure out how to input graphics, although I'll have to wait to experiment with that until I have some graphics to insert.

Hi Michael,

Quark Xpress is a great program for layout. It's very cut and dried, not too many bells and whistles, but it definitely gets the job done.

I highly recommend any of David Blatner's books on using the beast. He's the expert you want to listen to.

Basic image import is done by drawing a picture box, selecting the box and then hitting cmd E (ctrl E on the PC, I think). This should bring up a finder window, select the image you want and hit OK. Shift-Cmd-F and Shift-Opt-Cmd-F will scale and fit the image to your box. Shift-Opt-Cmd-M centers the image in the box. You can, of course, drag the box open or closed to better fit the image, too. Also, cmd dragging scales the image.

(sorry all my commands are in mac language, it's all I know.)

I also recommend going down a version in Quark if you can. 4.11 is one of the best programs ever written. 5.0 is a little buggy. (but it does have a snazzy table function). Also, these days I recommending Adobe's Indesign to layout neophyte's. It's easier to get a handle on for people who are just coming to the process.

Good Luck
-L

PS David Blatner can answer any of your questions far better than I. If you're serious, seek out his books!

I would actually recommend the original Quark manual (mine is from 4.11). I have never seen a software manual as useful as that one, so I never bought any other books. In versions 5 and 6, you only get a PDF manual and have to buy the original, so I'm still using my 4.11 manual as reference for version 6 (since many things haven't changed).

Anyway, the get text functions works exactly like a get text function should, by dropping formatting. If you want to keep formatting, you can either copy/paste, or you can do an import (Quark comes with filters for RTF and Word docs among many others). However, you should really be using Quark's Style Sheets to format your document, which is why a no-format get text is exactly what you want. Assign the style sheets to your keyboard's function keys and just hit the button you want for the block of text in question. (Besides ease of formatting, the automatic table of contents functions depend on style sheets... and you really don't want to do those by hand).

Luke's got the right way to import images. In fact, if I remember right, the Get Text command turns into the Get Picture command when you select a graphic box instead of a text box.

yes, justin's dead on the money here. It's all about style sheets. you can't use formatted text from a word document to go to press. It's called "overstyles". When those bolds and italics hit the image setter, it just ignores them and prints roman text. Thus what you get back in your proofs can be quite different than what you sent out.

can't use truetype fonts for print either.

However, if your final output is pdf, none of that matters.

hope that helps,
-L

Well, now I actually have the pospect of spoending much of July and early August laying out a book unless someone else volunteers to do the job. There are some things I want to do that I'm not sure how to manage, such as:

1. Have a standard two-column layout, but with chapter headings centered on the top of each page and page nunbers cenetred on the bottom of each page.

2. Assembling a book with a front cover, a chapter or two in the middle, and a back cover -- ideally having some pre-asigned format for each that i can simply plug my text and images into and edit as needed.

3. Set the resolution of my PDF output (a 5.0 feature) so that I can have one file for web distribution, another for print, and a third for my files.

I'm really new at this, so new it's embarassing to admit.

Hi Michael,

Quark isn't that intuitive a program. It's pretty hard to just pick up in two months. I strongly recommend getting a manual, either the Quark users manual or Blatner's guide.

But what you're asking for is quite doable in Quark. You'll want to investigate Master Pages and Style Sheets.

hope that helps,
-L

Another option for beginners is the relatively inexpensive Peach Pit Press books. Their visual quick start books are great, particularly if you have no familiarity with layout software at all. It is what I buy our interns.

Hope this helps
Keith

Bob Goat wrote: Another option for beginners is the relatively inexpensive Peach Pit Press books. Their visual quick start books are great, particularly if you have no familiarity with layout software at all. It is what I buy our interns.

Hope this helps
Keith

My friend you are in luck then. I found the Quark 5 book at Amazon. No charge for the use of my web-fu.

Keith