Quarkxpress for Dummies

QuarkXPress still remains one of the top tools for layout and design projects, even thirty years after it made its debut. This full-color, hands-on guide is here to help you take the guesswork out of using this powerful tool to create stunning print or digital designs. In QuarkXPress For Dummies, you'll find information on the latest changes to QuarkXPress, easy-to-follow, step-by-step guidance on using the tools built into the software to aid in designing and outputting visual product, and quick solutions to common Quark problems when you get stuck.

QuarkXPress dominated the page layout world for decades. It's stuck around thanks to how it readily adapts to customer needs. This new version contains updates and features driven solely by customer feedback. That responsiveness is luring new and former users to the fold.  That resurgence in the design community has Quark users clamoring for an authoritative book on how to use it to its fullest. Created in partnership with the pros at Quark, this is the book for new and experienced QuarkXPress users looking to make sense of the latest version.

• Offers unbeatable tricks for working with text
• Provides guidance on managing larger design projects
• Includes tips on how to correct mistakes

Take a tour of the palettes, add style to your work, and make QuarkXPress work for you!

Jay J. Nelson is a renowned expert on QuarkXPress, founder of PlanetQuark.com, author of multiple training videos, and QuarkXPress reviewer for Macworld and PC World.

Introduction 1

About This Book 2

Foolish Assumptions 3

Icons Used in This Book 3

Beyond the Book 3

Where to Go from Here 4

Part 1: Getting Started With Quarkxpress 5

Chapter 1: Meeting Quarkxpress 2016 7

Understanding What QuarkXPress Does 8

Getting a Feel for What’s New in QuarkXPress 2016 10

Introducing the Big Features in Recent Versions 11

Managing Your Files 12

Futzing with file formats 13

Opening projects 13

Opening older QuarkXPress projects 14

Understanding and creating a project 15

Closing and saving projects 19

Using Auto Save and Auto Backup 19

Using templates 20

Chapter 2: Getting to Know the Interface 21

Getting a Feel for the Application Interface 22

Surveying the Project Interface 23

Marching through the Menus 24

The QuarkXPress menu 24

The File menu 25

The Edit menu 25

The Style menu 25

The Item menu 25

The Page menu 26

The Layout menu 26

The Table menu 27

The View menu 27

The Utilities menu 27

The Window menu 30

Using Context Menus 30

Mastering Palettes 31

Opening, closing, resizing, and moving palettes 32

Grouping palettes 32

Docking palettes 33

Hiding palettes (Mac only) 33

Using palette sets 33

Searching palettes 34

Organizing with View Sets 34

Visualizing with Output Preview 35

Zooming around Your Layout 36

Using the Pan tool 36

Using the scroll bars 36

Using the Page Up and Page Down keys 37

Using the Zoom tool 37

Zooming (even better) with your keyboard and mouse 37

Moving through pages 39

Using Split Views 39

Splitting a window 40

Removing splits and panes 40

Switching among Layouts 40

Chapter 3: Creating Items 41

Using the Item and Content Tools 42

Creating Boxes 43

Creating Lines and Arrows 45

Creating lines 45

Changing line attributes 45

Building Bézier Boxes and Lines 47

Understanding Bézier shapes 48

Drawing a Bézier box 49

Using the Pen tools 50

Using the magic Freehand Drawing tool 50

Editing Bézier shapes 51

Converting an existing box or line to Bézier 51

Applying Frames, Dashes, and Stripes 52

Creating Text Paths 53

Converting Text to Outlines for Special Effects 55

Using ShapeMaker to Generate Boxes and Lines 56

Creating shapes from scratch 57

Working with shapes found on the Presets tab 59

Converting PDF, EPS, or Adobe Illustrator Files to Native QuarkXPress Items 60

Converting Objects from InDesign, Microsoft Office, and Other Apps to Native QuarkXPress Items 63

Chapter 4: Working with Items 65

Selecting Items 65

Manipulating Items 66

Moving items 66

Resizing and reshaping items 67

Rotating boxes 70

Skewing boxes 70

Flipping box content 72

Locking items 72

Suppressing item output 72

Suppressing picture output 73

Duplicating items 73

Deleting items 74

Using Super Step & Repeat for Super Duplication 75

Cloning Items with Cloner 76

Scaling Items or Layouts, Intelligently 78

Stacking, Grouping, and Aligning Items 80

Stacking items 80

Grouping and ungrouping items 81

Spacing and aligning items 82

Illuminating the Layers Palette 84

Understanding the Layers palette 84

Working faster with the Layers palette menu 86

Changing layer attributes 87

Using layers on master pages 88

Getting Guidance from Rulers and Guides 88

Ruling rulers 88

Getting guide-ance 88

Merging and Splitting Items 93

Finding and Changing Item Attributes 95

Using Item Styles 96

Creating and editing Item Styles 97

Checking Item Style usage 100

Storing Items in Libraries 100

Chapter 5: Building a Layout 103

Making and Using Master Pages 103

Creating an automatic text box 106

Creating an automatic page number 107

Creating a new master page 108

Duplicating a master page 108

Converting a layout page to a master page 108

Deleting a master page 109

Changing the name of a master page 109

Adding new layout pages 109

Deleting layout pages 110

Moving layout pages 110

Applying a different master page to a layout page 111

Changing master page items 111

Modifying Page Size and Margins (If You Dare) 112

Changing page size 112

Changing margins and guides 113

Numbering Pages in Sections 114

Creating a section 114

Changing the starting page number 115

Changing the page numbering style 115

Adding prefixes to page numbers 115

Creating a “Continued on Page . . .” Jump Line 115

Chapter 6: Building a Book 117

Starting a Book 118

Working with Chapters 119

Adding layouts to a book as Chapters 119

Working with Chapters in the Books palette 120

Printing a Chapter or book 123

Exporting a PDF of a Chapter or book 123

Generating a Table of Contents 124

Setting up a list 124

Building a list (collecting the list items into a text box) 126

Rebuilding a list (updating list items in a text box) 127

Creating an Index 128

Using Footnotes and Endnotes 128

Chapter 7: Share and Share Alike: Syncing and Collaborating 129

Sharing and Synchronizing Items 130

Placing shared items and content 132

Unsynchronizing shared items 133

Using Composition Zones 133

Creating a Composition Zones item 133

Placing, styling, and editing a Composition Zones item 136

Unsynchronizing a Composition Zones item 136

Understanding Job Jackets 137

Part 2: Speaking In Text 139

Chapter 8: Creating Text Boxes 141

Understanding Why You Need Text Boxes 141

Deciding Which Is Best: Manual or Automatic? 142

Creating a Text Box Manually 142

Changing the Shape and Appearance of a Text Box 143

Changing the box angle and skew 144

Changing the box corner shape 144

Changing the box color and opacity 145

Adding frames and drop shadows 145

Creating other text box shapes 145

Controlling the Position of Text in Its Box 146

Setting the columns and margins of a text box 146

Vertically aligning the text 146

Setting the inset of a text box 147

Where should the text start? 147

Setting the text angle and skew 148

Linking and Unlinking Text Boxes 148

Linking text boxes 148

Unlinking text boxes 149

Copying linked text boxes 150

Deleting linked text boxes 150

Using Linkster 150

Importing Text 152

Importing text from a word processing document 152

Dragging a text file from the file system 154

Dragging text from another application 154

Exporting Text 155

Chapter 9: Formatting Characters 157

Learning the Basics of Typography 157

Common font formats 159

Font categories 160

Useful font combinations 161

Discovering and Replacing Fonts Used in Your Document 163

Working with font mapping rules 164

Using Font Fallback 166

Choosing to Use the Measurements Palette 167

Selecting a typeface 168

Applying a typeface 168

Choosing a font size 169

Applying and removing a type style 170

Breaking ligatures apart 171

Applying OpenType styles 171

Controlling text spacing 172

Assigning color, shade, and opacity 173

Applying Special Effects 174

Stretching text 174

Converting fractions and prices 174

Using drop shadows for text 176

Inserting Special Characters 176

Inserting hyphens, invisible characters, and automatic page numbers 177

Using the Glyphs palette for other special characters 178

Setting Typographic Preferences 180

Controlling Text Greeking 181

Working with Language Features 182

Choosing a language for spelling and hyphenation 182

Enabling East Asian languages 182

Chapter 10: Formatting Paragraphs 183

Formatting Paragraphs: The Basics 184

Using the text ruler 184

Setting paragraph indents 185

Setting space above and below a paragraph 185

Setting paragraph leading 186

Setting paragraph alignment 186

Setting hyphenation and justification (H&J) 187

Formatting Paragraphs: Getting Fancy 187

Using hanging characters (punctuation) 188

Creating drop caps 188

Keeping paragraphs together 189

Keeping lines together in a paragraph 189

Aligning paragraphs to a grid 190

Adding bullets and numbering 190

Aligning characters of different sizes 191

Adding rules above and below a paragraph 191

Setting tabs 192

Copying Formatting with the Format Painter 193

Styling with Style Sheets 195

Creating a paragraph style sheet 195

Updating style sheets 198

Appending style sheets 199

Deleting and replacing style sheets 199

Applying style sheets 199

Creating a character style sheet 201

Formatting Magic with Conditional Styles 201

Creating a conditional style 202

Using conditional style markers 204

Applying a conditional style 204

Editing a conditional style 204

Removing a conditional style 205

Deleting a conditional style 205

Chapter 11: Editing Text 207

Finding and Changing Text or Attributes 208

Specifying text to find 209

Specifying attributes to find 210

Changing local formats to character style sheets 211

Applying OpenType styles 212

Using the Find and Change buttons 212

Using the Spelling Checker 213

Spell checking a selection, story, or layout 213

Using and managing auxiliary dictionaries 215

Using the Story Editor to Edit Text 216

Using Content Variables 217

Creating and deleting a content variable 217

Inserting, editing, and duplicating a content variable 219

Using a content variable to create a page reference 219

Converting a content variable to text 221

Tracking Changes with Redline 221

Tracking changes 221

Viewing tracked changes 221

Accepting and rejecting changes 223

Using Notes 223

Creating Notes 224

Working with Notes 224

Part 3: Communicating With Graphics 227

Chapter 12: Making Tables 229

Building a Table 230

Using the Table tool 230

Converting text to a table 231

Importing Excel tables and charts 233

Working with Tables 236

Navigating through a table 237

Adding text and pictures to tables 237

Selecting cells, rows, and columns 237

Editing table text 238

Linking table cells 238

Formatting tables 239

Inserting and deleting rows and columns 242

Combining cells 243

Breaking tables automatically 243

Breaking tables manually 243

Adding header and footer rows 245

Converting a table back to text 245

Converting a table to separate items 246

Chapter 13: Adding Pictures 247

Importing a Picture 247

Using ImageGrid to Import a Folder of Pictures 249

Working with Pictures 251

Moving pictures around 251

Cropping pictures 251

Resizing pictures 252

Rotating and skewing pictures 252

Flipping pictures 252

Coloring and shading pictures 253

Adding a Drop Shadow 253

Managing Pictures 255

Finding, updating, and relinking pictures 256

Using Auto Picture Import 256

Editing the original 256

Finding the original 257

Controlling Layers, Channels, and Paths in Photoshop Documents 257

Creating a QR Code in QuarkXPress 258

Exporting Pictures 260

Greeking Picture Previews 260

Suppressing Output of Pictures 261

Chapter 14: When Text Met Graphics 265

Wrapping Text around Other Items 265

Running text around text boxes 266

Running text around pictures 266

Editing a runaround path 268

Running text around lines and text paths 268

Running text around all sides of an item 269

Anchoring Items inside the Text Flow 270

Creating and Configuring Callouts 271

Creating a callout 271

Configuring a callout anchor 272

Working with callout styles 274

Copying and pasting callouts 275

Deleting a callout 275

Chapter 15: Making a Colorful Page 277

Describing Color 277

Specifying Color 278

Creating a new color 279

Using the color picker 280

Applying colors 281

Editing colors 282

Duplicating colors 282

Deleting or replacing colors 282

Appending colors from other projects 282

Knocking out and overprinting 283

Creating Color Blends 284

Adjusting Opacity (Transparency) 286

Adding Colors from Imported Pictures 287

Managing and Proofing Colors 287

Choosing your display profile 287

Soft proofing your layout 288

Creating a custom output setup 289

Sharing color setups 290

Part 4: Getting Ready For Your Big Debut 291

Chapter 16: Prepping to Print 293

Understanding the Print Dialog Box 293

Device pane 295

Pages pane 295

Colors pane 296

Pictures pane 297

Fonts pane 298

Registration Marks pane 298

Bleed pane 298

Transparency pane 299

JDF pane 299

Layers pane 299

Notes and Redline panes 300

Advanced pane 300

Summary pane 300

Buttons 301

Creating an Output Style 302

Working with a Commercial Printer 303

Exporting a press-ready PDF 303

Using Collect for Output 305

Troubleshooting Your Print Results 306

Chapter 17: Going Digital: PDF, Hyperlinks, ePUB, and HTML5 Animations 309

Exporting Pages as Images 310

Exporting to PDF 311

Creating a PDF file 311

Using Interactive PDF Features 313

Exporting hyperlinks and bookmarks to PDF 314

Exporting an entire book to PDF 315

Creating and Editing PDF Output Styles 315

Fixing Common PDF File Problems 317

Font embedding issues 317

Image issues 317

Printer’s marks and bleed 318

Creating Hyperlinks 318

Creating destinations 318

Creating anchors 320

Assigning hyperlink destinations 320

Creating a hyperlink on the fly 320

Editing and appending destinations 321

Formatting hyperlinks 321

Navigating using the Hyperlinks palette 322

Understanding Digital Publishing Formats 322

Creating Projects for ePub, Kindle, HTML5, and App Studio 324

Converting a print layout to a digital layout 324

Creating a digital layout 325

Synchronizing content between orientations 327

Adding Interactivity to Digital Layouts 327

Creating a 360° image 328

Adding animation 330

Adding audio 332

Adding a button 333

Adding a zoomable picture 334

Adding a scroll zone 335

Adding a slide show 337

Adding a video 339

Adding a web view 341

Working with interactivity actions 342

Publishing to ePub and Kindle 343

Exporting to Fixed view format for ePub and Kindle 344

Creating a Reflowable view e-book for ePub and Kindle 344

Creating a table of contents for ePub or Kindle 349

Working with e-book metadata 350

Exporting to Reflowable View ePub 350

Exporting to Reflowable View Kindle 351

Creating HTML5 Publications 352

Part 5: The Part of Tens 353

Chapter 18: Ten QuarkXPress Workflow Resources 355

Quark’s Free QuarkXPress Document Converter 355

App Studio 356

Key Commands for Tools 357

XTensions That Will Blow Your Mind 358

Xdata 358

Xcatalog 358

JoLetter XTension 359

MadeToPrint 359

Image Info XT 359

Arabic XT 359

Badia Software’s XTensions (Mac only) 360

PDF Importer XT 361

ID2Q 361

ID Util (Mac only) 361

AutoCorrectXT 361

Other Affordable Workflow Tools 362

Quite Imposing Plus 362

JoJo (Mac only) 362

AppleScripts (Mac Only) 362

Documentation from Quark 364

The Skinny on QuarkXPress Tips & Tricks 364

Online Resources 364

Planet Quark 365

Quark’s Facebook group 365

QuarkXPress YouTube channel 365

Quark Forums 365

Chapter 19: Ten Do’s and Don’ts When Using QuarkXPress 367

Do Talk with Your Commercial Printer 367

Don’t Use Scroll Bars 368

Do Temporarily Switch to the Item Tool 368

Don’t Copy When You Can Share 368

Do Use the Built-In Calculator 369

Do Make Style Sheets Quickly 369

Do Use Keyboard Shortcuts to Size Pictures and Text 369

Don’t Scale Pictures below the DPI You Need for Output 370

Do Use Auto-Save and Auto-Backup 370

Do Customize How QuarkXPress Works 370

Appendix: Chart of Features Added In Quarkxpress 7 and Up 373

Index 383

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