Question 1

What is QuarkXPress

Accepted Answer

QuarkXPress is a desktop publishing (page layout) application for Mac OS and Windows, produced by Quark, Inc.

The first version was released in 1987. XTensions technology, which allows developers to create custom software add-ons for Quark products, was also introduced in 1987. QuarkXPress Passport is QuarkXPress with the added ability to handle multiple language documents.

Although there are similar applications for the home and small office market, such as Adobe PageMaker and Microsoft Publisher, QuarkXPress has long been the dominant application for professional design of magazines and brochures.

Adobe InDesign, launched as a direct competitor, was slow to gather speed, but outsold QuarkXPress in 2002.

However, even if this trend continues, Quark's much larger installed user base would take years to erode. According to Meryl Lynch in 2004, QuarkXPress' market share was still 8 times that of InDesign.

However, for much of its history, Quark had a history of doing relatively infrequent new versions, and pricing them at a high level. This, combined with public perception of former CEO Ebrahimi's attitude towards the company's customers, has resulted in a strong negative feeling among many of Quark's customers, which seems to be enhancing competitor Adobe Systems' ability to woo people to try their competing software, Adobe InDesign.

Recent new versions of QuarkXPress have emphasized web development features almost as much as print publishing, which has frustrated some of Quark's traditional print users seeking feature parity with InDesign.

Since version 6.0 QuarkXPress offers multiple undo/redo functionality, enhancements to the table, XML and web page features and support for direct PDF output. Quark has said that it will not support advanced layout features of OpenType before version 7 and also Unicode will be supported only in QuarkXPress version 7.

New versions of the software introduced new file formats. However, in order to retain compatibility QuarkXPress 5 can save in 5 or 4 format, QuarkXPress 6 can save in 6 and 5 format and both QuarkXPress 5 and 6 can open QuarkXPress 3, 4, and 5 documents. Obviously, only QuarkXPress 6 can open version 6 documents. This creates a number of problems for users trying to maintain compatibility with each other and is holding back the upgrade process since a large share of users still use Quark 4.11.

Question 2

How to prepare a QuarkXPress project for translation

Accepted Answer

To translate QuarkXPress files, you need to convert the text in the files to a format that is easily translated.

Story Collector for QuarkXPress facilitates the export of tagged text from QuarkXPress and the subsequent re-import of text after translation, minimizing the amount of time that needs to be spent on preparatory and post-translation work.

TIP: Story Collector for QuarkXPress works with QuarkXPress 4.1, 5.x, and 6.x. It converts files in QXD and QXT format to a text format (QSC) that can be easily translated using Translator's Workbench and TagEditor.

NOTE: You can also easily translate XTG, TTG, and TAG file formats. These are produced directly by QuarkXPress and CopyFlow export functionality. See QuarkXPress documentation for more details.

Story Collector for QuarkXPress is a QuarkXPress 4.1, 5.x, and 6.x XTension. This means that it uses the Application Programming Interface (API) provided by QuarkXPress to add extra functionality to QuarkXPress itself. Once you have placed certain files in the XTension of QuarkXPress, you can access Story Collector functionality via the TRADOS menu.
Story Collector has three basic functions which are presented in the TRADOS menu in QuarkXPress. These are the story order, export and import functions. These functions are duplicated for batch operations.

Story Order: Before exporting stories from your QuarkXPress document, you can determine the order in which they appear in the export file. This means that stories are presented for translation in a sequence that is as logical as possible.
Exporting Stories: After setting the story order, you specify a name and location for the tagged text export file. After exporting all stories to this file, you then open the file in TagEditor. The file is translated in the normal way, using Translator's Workbench.
Importing Stories: After translation, you save the file to QuarkXPress tagged text format, and import the translated stories into a copy of the original QuarkXPress file, using Story Collector.

XTG files

In SDL TRADOS 7.1 TagEditor can also open XTG files created with SDLXtract. SDLXtract is a standalone application, available from SDL, that exports Mac-based Quark documents into XTG text files, which can then be opened in SDL Edit or TagEditor.

Key Term Definition

The following key terms occur frequently in this chapter:

QXD - QuarkXPress files have a QXD extension.
QXT - QuarkXPress files have a QXT extension.
QSC - a tagged text format that used for the export and import files.
Export file - a tagged text file in QSC format containing untranslated text. This file is produced when you export stories from a QuarkXPress file.
Import file - a tagged text file in QSC format containing translated text. You import this file into a copy of the source QuarkXPress file overwriting the source language text contained in it.
Log file - a file containing information on export, import, batch export and batch import operations. You can choose to create a log file while exporting or importing single or multiple files.
- For export and import operations, it contains details on whether the operation was successful or not and the number of stories exported or imported.
- For batch export and import operations it contains the time and date of the operation, details on whether the operation was successful or not for each batch file and the number of stories in each batch file exported or imported.
Inline frame - a frame containing text or graphics placed in a sentence or word. It behaves as if it were a single character of text. Story Collector for QuarkXPress relies on the QuarkXPress Application Programming Interface (API) to collect and export/import the translatable text from QuarkXPress documents. Inline frames, however, cannot be manipulated via the API, which is why Story Collector cannot export or re-import them.

NOTE: QuarkXPress places inline frames at the start of the translated file when you import your translated file back into QuarkXPress. Use your source QXD files as a reference to move these inline frames back into their original position.

Question 3

Working with Story Collector in QuarkXPress

Accepted Answer

Translation Workflow
Translation of a QuarkXPress file involves the following stages:

Install Story Collector for QuarkXPress.
Prepare your QuarkXPress source files for translation.
Create a folder structure for your QuarkXPress translation project.
Set the story order in your QuarkXPress source file.
Export all stories from the QuarkXPress file to a text file (QSC).
Translate the file.
Import the file back into QuarkXPress.
Reposition any inline graphics into their original position. Use your QuarkXPress source files as a reference if necessary.

NOTE: You can also use Story Collector for QuarkXPress to process a batch of QuarkXPress files.

Installing Story Collector for QuarkXPress
Story Collector for QuarkXPress is included as part of your SDL TRADOS installation. These files are installed by default to the following location:

C:\Program Files\TRADOS\xxx\FI\QXP, where xxx corresponds to the name of the software you are using.

There are folders for each supported version of QuarkXPress in English and Japanese in the QXP folder:
4.1_E
4.1_J
5.0_E
6.0_E

If you have a version later than 6.0, use the files in the 6.0_E folder. Before you install the Story Collector XTension, make sure that QuarkXPress 4.1, 5.x, or 6.x is installed on your system and is not running.

To install the Story Collector XTension:

Copy the following files from the default Story Collector installation folder to the XTension folder in the QuarkXPress installation folder.
- Story CollectorQ.xnt
- Story Collector GUI.dll
- Story Collector Kernel.dll
- Common.dll
- Story CollectorQ1033.hlp
- Story CollectorQ1033.cnt
Open QuarkXPress. The toolbar now contains a TRADOS menu through which you can access Story Collector functionality.

NOTE:

If you use Story Collector for QuarkXPress 4.1 for Japanese, move Enhance Preview.xnt into the XTension Disabled folder before starting QuarkXPress.
For Story Collector for QuarkXPress 4.1 for Japanese, the files to be copied to the QuarkXPress XTension folder are: EA_Common.dll, EA_Story Collector Gui.dll, EA_Story Collector Kernel.dll, and EA_Story CollectorQ.axt

Sample File
You can use the sample QuarkXPress file (sample.qxd) to work with the Story Collector for QuarkXPress that ships with TRADOS. This sample file is installed to C:\Program Files\Trados\xxx\Samples\Story Collector for QuarkXPress, where xxx corresponds to the name of the software you are using. You should use the sample file to work through the Story Collector process example that follows in this chapter.

Preparation and export for translation
You may need to prepare your QuarkXPress file(s) before using Story Collector to export. The extent of your preparation will depend on the formatting of your document and the source and target languages of your translation.

You should:

Create a folder structure for your QuarkXPress translation project
Set the story order of the stories in the QuarkXPress file so that they are presented for translation in a logical sequence
Export the stories in the QuarkXPress file to a text file.

How to create a folder structure
As this process produces a QXD (QuarkXPress Document) and QSC (QuarkXPress Story Collector) file for each language, it is vital to set up a folder structure for the project. Otherwise files may be lost or misplaced.
Create a target folder for each language you are translating into, as well as a source folder for the original files. Place a copy of the QuarkXPress file for translation in each target language folder. In this way, you retain a copy of each source and target file.

To retain copies of each file we suggest the following structure:

A source language folder with a subfolder for QXD files and another subfolder for QSC files.
A target language folder with a subfolder for QXD files and another subfolder for QSC files.

To keep a copy of each file and file format:

Place the files to be translated in the source QXD folder.
Place a copy of the same files in the target QXD folder.
Export the source files from the source QXD folder to your source QSC folder.
We recommend that you copy the files in your source QSC folder into your target QSC folder as it makes it less likely that you overwrite the source QSC files by mistake.
Translate the files in the target QSC folder using Translator's Workbench and TagEditor, and save the translated files in your target QSC folder.
Open the copy of the source files you placed in the target QSD folder earlier, import the translated files from the target QSC folder.
Reposition any inline frames in your translated files and save.

Opening Story Collector for QuarkXPress
Open a QuarkXPress document. A TRADOS menu is visible on the top menu bar. To open Story Collector, select an option from this menu.

How to set the story order?
By default, the stories on each page in your QuarkXPress document are exported in top-down order. However, this may not correspond to the order in which they flow logically. The story order function in Story Collector allows you to choose the order in which stories are exported to the tagged text file so that they are presented in a logical sequence for translation. This will not affect the layout of the QuarkXPress file.

To set the story order for the tagged text export file:

From the TRADOS menu select Story Order. The Story Order dialog box appears.
The Page List box displays an entry for the master page, and one entry for each page of the document. Clicking on an entry displays the stories in that page in the Story List box directly below. QuarkXPress also displays the selected page behind the Story Order dialog box so you can see the page in question.
You may change the story order by clicking on a story in the Story List box, and use the arrows to the left of the Story List box to reorder them. This activates the Custom order radio button in the Story Order box. Alternatively, you may set the story order for all pages by clicking on the Top-Down order or Left-Right order radio buttons in the Story Order box.
- Top-down order: Story Collector for QuarkXPress starts at the top of the page and moves from left to right at each height. Therefore, stories situated higher on the page than other stories are always exported first, even if the other story is farther left.
- Left-right order: Story Collector for QuarkXPress starts at the left of the page and exports all leftmost stories beginning at the top and finishing at the bottom of the page. It then returns to the top of the page, and so on. Therefore, leftmost stories are exported first even if one story is higher than another on a page.
- Custom order: You may rearrange the story order on each page in any order you wish. To do this, select each story in turn and use the arrows to move them. You can also drag and drop the stories into position.
When you are satisfied with the story order for the tagged text export file, click OK to confirm the story order, Reset to start again, and Export if you wish to export this file immediately.
- Even if you are working with multiple page spreads in QuarkXPress, you can only rearrange the story order within a single page at a time. Stories that spread over more than one page appear under the page they start on.
- If you do not set the story order for an individual file, Story Collector for QuarkXpress will use the story order set in the Settings dialog box by default.

Exporting Stories
To export all the stories in your QuarkXPress file to a single text file:

Open the QuarkXPress file you wish to export.
From the TRADOS menu, select Export. The Select Export File dialog box appears.
In the Select Export File dialog box, specify the location of your source QSC folder, and a name for the extended tagged text file. The same file name as the source file is automatically suggested.
Click Save, a series of progress bars appear and Story Collector for QuarkXPress creates an export file in the folder you specified. The Export Results dialog box opens. It tells you if the export has been successful and how many stories have been exported.
Click OK to finish the export process, or click Save As to save the export results to a log file. The Save Log File dialog box opens.
Browse to where you want to save the log file, name it and click Save. Story Collector for QuarkXPress saves it under the name and in the location you specified.
Click OK in the Export Results dialog box and the export process is finished.

All stories are collected and placed in a QSC file in the source QSC folder you specified. We recommend that you copy the files in your source QSC folder into your target QSC folder as it makes it less likely that you overwrite the source QSC files by mistake. You can now translate the files in your target QSC folder.

NOTE: If you have the index extension palette open in QuarkXPress, you can export full index entries. If it is closed, you can export only partial index entries.

Translation
Translate your QuarkXPress files using Translator's Workbench and TagEditor. The following steps offer a high level view of the translation process for QuarkXPress files.

Export your file to your source QSC folder, and then place a copy of it in your target QSC folder.
Translate the file in your target QSC folder using TagEditor, saving the file in bilingual TRADOStag (TTX) format during translation.
When you have finished translating, verify the tag content of the translated file using the Generic Tag Verifier in TagEditor. Successful verification ensures that the syntax of tags in the translated file is correct and guarantees backward conversion.
After verification, use the Clean Up command in Translator's Workbench to remove bilingual data from the translated file and to convert the file back to QSC format. If necessary, you can also use the Clean Up command to update the translation memory with the latest bilingual data.
Save the file to your target QSC folder.
Open the source file you previously placed in your target QXD folder in QuarkXPress. Import the file back from your target QSC folder using Story Collector for QuarkXPress, and save.

Importing Translated Stories
To import the translated stories back into the QuarkXPress file:

Open the copy of the original QuarkXPress file that you placed in the target QXD subfolder earlier.
Choose Import from the TRADOS menu in QuarkXPress. The Select Import File dialog
box is displayed.
Select the import file from the target QSC subfolder.
Click Open, a series of progress bars appear and Story Collector for QuarkXPress imports the translated stories. The Import Results dialog box opens. It tells you if the import has been successful and how many stories have been imported.
Click OK to finish the import process, or click Save As to save the import results to a log file. The Save Log File dialog box opens.
Browse to where you want to save the log file, name it and click Save. Story Collector for QuarkXPress saves it under the name and in the location you specified.
Click OK in the Import Results dialog box and the import process is finished.
From the File menu, select Save. The Save dialog box is displayed.
Click Save.

NOTE:

If you have the index extension palette open in QuarkXPress, you can import full index entries. If it is closed, you can import only partial index entries.
If your QuarkXPress file contains inline frames, QuarkXPress places them at the start of the translated file when you import your translated file back into QuarkXPress. You need to move these inline frames back into their original position. Use your source QXD files as a reference if necessary.

Question 4

Batch functions in Story Collector for QuarkXPress

Accepted Answer

When dealing with multiple files, the story order, the export and import operations differ slightly to those of single files described earlier on in this chapter.

How to set the story order?
To set the story order for a batch export operation:

From the TRADOS menu, choose Settings. The Settings dialog box is displayed.
In the Default Story Order box, select either Top-down order or Left-right order.
- Top-down order: This means Story Collector for QuarkXPress starts at the top of the page and moves from left to right at each height. Therefore, stories situated higher on the page than other stories are always exported first, even if the other story is farther left.
- Left-right order: This means Story Collector for QuarkXPress starts at the left of the page and exports all leftmost stories beginning at the top and finishing at the bottom of the page. It then returns to the top of the page, and so on. Therefore, leftmost stories are exported first even if one story is higher than another on a page.
  
  The order you choose applies to all subsequent batch export files, and to individual files if you do not set a story order in the Story Order dialog box.
Note: For batch operations, story order is limited to Top-down or Left-right. There is no custom order option.
Select default batch import and export directories in the Default Batch Directories box. You must specify these or the Batch Export and Batch Import buttons in the in the Batch Export and Batch Import dialog boxes remains greyed out. These settings are retained and used as default settings until you change them again.
Click OK to confirm the settings.

NOTE: The Settings dialog box allows you to include stories left on the pasteboard. These are placed after the Master page stories and before the main page stories in the export file.

Exporting Stories
To export stories from multiple files at the same time:

Select a default Batch export folder for the batch files. You do this in the Settings dialog box.
You must set this before you can export multiple files. The Batch Export button in the Batch Export dialog box remains greyed out until you select an export folder.
From the TRADOS menu, choose Batch Export. The Batch Export dialog box appears
Click Add. The Add Files dialog box is displayed.
Browse to your source QXD folder and select the files that contain stories for export. Click Open to confirm your selection. The selected files are added to the Files To Export list in the Batch Export dialog box.
In the Batch Export dialog box, your source QSC folder appears as you previously selected it in the Settings dialog box. You can change this if you wish by selecting another folder using the Browse button, but it reverts to the folder specified in the Settings dialog box for subsequent batch export operations.
In the Batch Export dialog box, click Export to run the export operation. The Batch Export progress bar is displayed and Story Collector for QuarkXPress creates an export file(s) in the folder you specified. The Batch Export Results dialog box opens. It tells you if the export has been successful, the time and the date of the export and how many stories have been exported.
Click OK to finish the export process, or click Save As to save the batch export results to a log file. The Save Log File dialog box opens.
Browse to where you want to save the log file, name it and click Save. Story Collector
for QuarkXPress saves it under the name and in the location you specified.
Click OK in the Export Results dialog box and the export process is finished.

Story Collector for QuarkXPress creates an export file (QSC) for each Quark source file in the source QSC folder. Each export file has the same name as its corresponding QXD file.

NOTE: You must close the index palette before undertaking a batch export. The Batch Export menu option is greyed out until the index extension palette is closed.

Importing Stories
To import multiple files at the same time:

Select a default Batch import folder for the batch files. Select your target QSC folder. You do this in the Settings dialog box. You must set this before you can export multiple files. The Batch Import button in the Batch Import dialog box remains greyed out until you select an import folder.
From the TRADOS menu in QuarkXPress, select Batch Import. The Batch Import dialog box is displayed.
Click Add. The Add Files dialog box is displayed.
Browse to your target QXD folder, and select the untranslated files that you wish to overwrite. Click Open to confirm. The selected files are added to the Files to Import list in the Batch Import dialog box.
In the Batch Import dialog box, your target QSC folder appears as you previously selected it the Settings dialog box. You can change this if you wish, but it reverts to the folder specified in the Settings dialog box for subsequent batch import operations.
In the Batch Import dialog box, click Import to run the import operation. The Batch Import progress bar is displayed and Story Collector for QuarkXPress overwrites the copy of the original source file(s) in the target QXD folder with the import file(s). The Batch Import Results dialog box opens. It tells you if the import has been successful, the time and the date of the import and how many stories have been imported.
Click OK to finish the import process, or click Save As to save the batch import results to a log file. The Save Log File dialog box opens.
Browse to where you want to save the log file, name it and click Save. Story Collector for QuarkXPress saves it under the name and in the location you specified.
Click OK in the Import Results dialog box and the import process is finished.

Story Collector for QuarkXPress overwrites existing files of the same name in the target QXD folder. Therefore each target QXD file has the same name as its corresponding source QXD file, but is located in the target folder.

NOTE:
- You must close the index palette before undertaking a batch import. The Batch Import menu option is greyed out until the index extension palette is closed.
- If your QuarkXPress file contains inline frames, QuarkXPress places them at the start of the translated file when you import your translated file back into QuarkXPress. You need to move these inline frames back into their original position. Use your source QXD files as a reference if necessary.

Question 5

How to make Excel Tables in Quark 6.1

Accepted Answer

Here's how to do it, along with some tips on how to work with Excel tables after you've got them in there:

Choose the Table tool (below the Picture Box tool) and drag out a rectangle with it, defining your table's initial width and height. As soon as you release the mouse, the Table Properties dialog pops up. Pay attention here, because you'll never be able to recall this dialog again for this particular table.
In Table Properties, ignore the fields for number of columns and rows, because importing the Excel workbook sheet will override your entries. Just click the checkbox next to "Link to External File."
In the resulting Table Link dialog, in Source, choose "Excel" for Type. Want to see what other types of files can be linked to a Table? Press and hold on the Type: drop-down menu.
Click the Browse button and navigate to the .xls file (the Excel worksheet) you want to import as a table. Select it and choose Open.
Now you're returned to the Table Link dialog, with the filename entered in the Source: Name field. Below that, two new areas are enabled: Table and Options.

Some explanation and a couple tips:
- In the Table area, you can choose a particular Sheet, if the Excel file has more than one; and you can specify a Cell Range, which is quite handy if you only need certain rows or columns, not the whole thing.
- the Options area, you can choose to include or ignore hidden rows and columns, format, geometry, and style sheets.
- A tip here is to turn OFF "Include Geometry." That way, Quark will shoehorn your Excel data to fit inside the initial boundaries of the Table you drew out back in Step 1. You can always resize the table and its rows and columns later to get everything to fit.
- If you keep Include Geometry turned on (the default), and you have a large spreadsheet, Quark will likely as not churn for awhile, thinking about it, and then give you an alert, "Item cannot be positioned off the pasteboard." In that case you're returned to your document and you have to start over.
When you're done with the Table Link dialog, click OK. Your Excel data is imported as a table into the Table boundary you drew out in Step 1.

Question 6

What is the difference between QuarkXPress and QuarkXPress Passport

Accepted Answer

QuarkXPress Passport® software is a complete, fully-functioning version of QuarkXPress® that includes additional features for multilingual publishing. QuarkXPress Passport supports hyphenation and spell-checking for 23 languages:

Czech, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, English (International), English (U.S.), Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian (hyphenation only), Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, European Portuguese, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Swiss-German, Turkish

QuarkXPress Passport files can be saved so that the standard single language QuarkXPress can open and read it. When saving a file, QuarkXPress Passport offers you the option to save the file as either "multiple language" or "single language". If you choose "multiple language" only QuarkXPress Passport will be able to read the file. If you choose "single language" then the standard version of QuarkXPress will be able to open and read it.

Make sure that the QuarkXPress Passport file is saved in a compatible version. For example, if you have QuarkXPress 5, the person using Passport has to save the QuarkXPress document as version 5 or earlier, or you won't be able to open it.

Question 7

QuarkXPress 6 versus InDesign CS

Accepted Answer

There is an important difference between adding features and improving a product. Quark has been busy adding features to QuarkXPress, but while users can now do substantially more than they used to, they can't do their work substantially better or easier. Sure, XPress has a variety of HTML tools, and you can create multiple layouts in a single document, but its typographic and layout features have hardly changed in more than a decade.

This is in stark contrast to Adobe InDesign. Each version of InDesign has not only added important features, but also improved on the previous version's features. InDesign 1.5 already had far more typographic prowess than XPress, but Adobe improved it anyway in version 2, and now InDesign CS offers even more control over type. For instance, the new Lock First Line of Paragraph to Baseline Grid essentially lets you have more than one baseline grid per page (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: InDesign trumps the much-vaunted typographic controls in QuarkXPress with features such as Lock First Line of Paragraph to Baseline Grid.

Whereas QuarkXPress has become slower and more cumbersome in each subsequent release, InDesign is actually getting faster in many ways, as Adobe focuses a large part of its engineering resources on improving the program's performance.

Quark has also shown a shocking disregard for user interface. For example, many people avoid the Space/Align feature in XPress because its dialog box (which hasn't changed since the early '90s) is just too confusing. And the Merge features in XPress (what Illustrator and InDesign calls "pathfinder" features) have an interface that only a programmer could love. Alternately, InDesign's comparable features - the Align and Pathfinder palettes - are icon-driven, intuitive, and much easier to use (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: Hardly anyone uses the QuarkXPress's Space/Align (top) or Merge (bottom) features because of their poor interfaces. Corresponding features in InDesign (middle) are generally clear and require little brain activity to achieve powerful results.

Even if you don't care about typography or the elegance of a program's user interface, InDesign still offers far more than XPress. For instance, after all these years, QuarkXPress 6 now gives us multiple undos. But there are still many features that are not undoable, like moving a guide, drawing a starburst, or making a change to a master page. Actually, it's worse: Most undoable actions in XPress also stop you from undoing any previous actions. So much for multiple undo. Conversely, not only is everything undoable in InDesign, but even if you crash (let's face it, all software crashes sooner or later), InDesign protects your document - even unsaved documents - and you lose hardly any work.

Quark has done its best to spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt regarding InDesign's ability to print. The reputation is unfair. Sure, InDesign 1.x had printing issues, but no more than QuarkXPress 1.x did. InDesign 2's print engine was completely reworked, and has been improved further in InDesign CS to the point that some printers and imaging centers now prefer it over XPress. The only InDesign printing problems I encounter these days are due to confirmed bugs in some PostScript RIPs.

Focus on the Features
On the one hand, InDesign wins because it offers big-ticket, flashy features like drop shadows and full support for transparency in native Photoshop and TIFF files. These features mean that I can actually lay out a page in my page-layout application, rather than switch to Photoshop 50 times a day. They mean I can focus on design rather than drawing clipping paths.

On the other hand, InDesign also wins because Adobe has implemented the basics better than Quark - those features that everyone uses repeatedly each day, like guides, the lock feature, linking text frames, and importing text and graphics. InDesign's Control palette is head-and-shoulders better than XPress's Measurements palette, letting you control all aspects of object positioning and text formatting (even paragraph and character styles).

Figure 3: The Measurements palette in QuarkXPress (top) pales in comparison to InDesign's Control palette (bottom). [Note: both palettes have been cut into two pieces to better fit the Web page.] InDesign helps reduce palette clutter by including commonly-used features for character and paragraph formatting (when you select text) or object control (when you select a line or frame). Tip: Switch between the character and paragraph panels of the palette by pressing Command-Option-7 or Ctrl-Alt-7..

Quark has even bungled one of the most important and elementary features of any page-layout program: seeing what imported graphics will really look like when printed. Quark won't even let you use this feature until after you have registered your program and downloaded two XTensions. InDesign just has this feature built-in; plus, it's significantly faster and easier to use than Quark's. After trying the full-resolution feature in both these programs, it feels like Quark's is a bad hack compared to InDesign's smooth elegance.

In fact, "bad hack" about almost every feature in XPress 6, from exporting PDF files (it has to print PostScript to disk and then freezes while the PostScript is turned into PDF, taking twice as long as InDesign to create the same PDF file), to printing in OS X (you can't choose a printer from the Print dialog box), to the anemic Table tool (which can't flow a table across columns or pages) to the clever-but-poorly-implemented Synchronized Text palette (which can't handle anchored objects). The one new feature in XPress 6 is ability to paste-in-place (pasting an object in the same place on different pages) - a feature which InDesign had in version 1.0.

Tipping the Scales
First, Quark seems incapable of changing its program for the better. For example, users have complained for a dozen years that when you lock an object in XPress you can still change its contents, move it by changing values in the Measurements palette, or even delete it. That doesn't seem locked to me, but Quark can't seem to fix it. In the same vein: you still can't rotate tables (even by 90 degrees) or include fonts in exported EPS files - basic features that any user has a right to expect.

The second "tipping point"! InDesign CS has a Story Editor to make editing text easier; a Separation Preview palette which lets us actually see color separations on screen before printing; nested styles for automatically applying character styles to a drop cap or the first word or the first sentence of a paragraph; "header" rows that automatically appear at the top of each column when a table spans multiple pages; the ability to export PDF/X or even save a page as a JPEG image without buying third-party tools.

Where QuarkXPress Wins
Of course, just because InDesign is the better product doesn't mean everyone should use it. There are certain situations where QuarkXPress comes out the winner. QuarkXPress has a number of features - big and small - that InDesign does not, and for some people these discrepancies make all the difference. For example, XPress supports hexachrome color, while InDesign does not. Many of the new features in XPress 5 and 6 revolve around HTML (rollovers, cascading menus, and so on), while InDesign CS has no export as HTML feature (version 2 did, but Adobe removed it, in favor of a new Package for GoLive feature).

QuarkXPress has drag-and-drop text editing, a kern-pair editor (see Figure 4), and the ability to save hyphenation and justification settings as named styles. It lets you build diagonal or oval gradients and apply coarse halftone and image tone adjustments to TIFF and JPEG images. XPress respects text wrap settings for objects on a master page while InDesign does not. XPress can add pages automatically as you type or edit a story; InDesign cannot.

Figure 4: QuarkXPress's Kern Pair Editor.

Features are not everything
Ultimately, both products have plenty of room to improve. For example, neither product includes automatic running heads for directories or catalogs, numbered lists and bullets, object styles (like style sheets for boxes and lines), or the ability to specify type formatting such as indents in em units (which would change as the type size changes). InDesign needs to be able to control text wrap around objects anchored in text or on master pages. QuarkXPress needs to work on its scripting support, especially on the Windows side.

Performance on slower machines used to be an important difference between the two programs; however, while earlier versions of XPress worked reasonably well on slow, RAM-deprived computers, both XPress 6 and InDesign CS require fast machines with plenty of RAM. Both programs also now require Mac OS X or Windows 2000 or XP. I would like to see performance improvements in both programs.

QuarkXPress costs several hundred dollars more than InDesign, and outside the United States the difference is even higher. In fact, if you want to publish in anything other than English, you have to pay a premium for Quark's Passport program (which is almost twice the cost of XPress). Plus, you can't share multi-lingual files with single-language XPress users. On the other hand, InDesign ships with 12 Roman languages built-in and because it's Unicode compliant (XPress is not), you can exchange InDesign files whether they include Hungarian, Japanese, Russian, or Arabic.

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