quark x press help...

[krossfyter]

If you are familiar with this app I could use some help form you.
I need to know whats your thoughts on the app, the learning curve of it...hard or easy... compared to Illustrator (not the same genra app i know) and photoshop. Can you tell me the basic stuff I need to know to get me rolling with the app. I will be doing a job using it but I dont have the app right now...getting it soon though. Ive only used it a couple of times and didnt see it as terribly hard to learn but then again I did not spend much time on it. I just need your thoughts on this app and any help you can provide would be appreciated.

 

[Choppaface]

I know AI pretty well, and photoshop a lot better. I picked up Quark (v4? i think) in about 10 to 15 minutes, mainly by finding features in it that I wanted and were not there (i.e. spacebar-click-drag to do quick hand scrolling). it's really not that hard, as long as you keep in mind the basic tools (i.e. that artwork box thingy, text boxes, runarounds...). that was a few months ago so I don't remember the exact tools, but I do remember I had a hard time deleting things. seriously if you play around with it for a little while, especially if you already have an already done file to play with, it shouldnt take you that long to pick it up.

 

[neilt]

xpress tips

these are the most important things to remember:
Everything goes in a box, or on a line. text goes in a box, pictures go in a box or text can go on a type path.

the top tools (the one with the arrows) affects the box or line itself, to move it or resize it.
the hand tool affects the contents of the box or type path.

quark is super easy to get the basics, but it has a huge amount of features and can take a long time to learn.

good luck
neilt

 

[bousozoku]

It's actually fairly easy in contrast to PageMaker or Illustration or Animation software.

Create frames of the proper type. Fill the frames. If it's version 5.x, you can control-click/right-click to get contexual menus that will help a lot. Remember to watch the info pallet--that long pallet which contains various information about sizes. Set up your character and paragraph styles before anything else.

Oh, and here's something that I failed to find in the help text in version 5.x although it's probably in every book for XPress:

Next page...such as "Continued on page..." is Command-2.
This page..."Page..." is Command-3.
Previous page...such as "Continued from page..." is Command-4.

Once you create a linked article/text boxes, you can create a text box which overlaps the text you are continuing and do the above keystroke combination.

Watch out for bugs and good luck!