The QuarkXPress menu

Application-level information such as your license code is here, along with application-level controls such as Quark Update settings and hiding or quitting the app. On a Mac, the all-powerful Preferences are here, too. (On Windows, Preferences is in the Edit menu.)

The File menu

File-level controls such as Open, Print, Save, and Close reside in this menu. The File menu is also where you go to create new projects or libraries, import text or graphics, append colors and style sheets from other projects, export text, layouts or pages to other formats, collect linked files for output, and use Job Jackets. (I explain Job Jackets in Chapter 7.)

The File menu includes a Revert to Saved menu item, which you can use for creative explorations. First, save your document; then make some changes you may or may not like to keep. If you hate, hate, hate the result, choose File ⇒ Revert to Saved, and your project goes back to how it looked when you last saved it.

The Edit menu

This very long menu hosts options to cut, copy and paste items, find and change text or page items, define repeatedly used resources such as colors, style sheets, hyperlinks, lists, color management, output styles (collections of output settings), and play with some wonderfully esoteric font controls. On Windows, the all-powerful Preferences controls are here, too. (On a Mac, Preferences is in the QuarkXPress menu.)

The Style menu

Most of the items in this menu are also available in QuarkXPress palettes. (See the section “Mastering palettes,” later in this chapter, for a detailed explanation of palettes.) The Style menu holds font style controls, picture box formats and controls, item styles, cross references, and hyperlinks.

The items you see in the Style menu change, depending on what kind of page item is currently active. This feature is another way QuarkXPress tries to help you be more efficient. Most of these menu items are also available in various palettes.

The Item menu

This menu gives you the power to make changes to an entire page item. (Page items include text boxes, picture boxes, lines, paths, and shared items such as Composition Zones.) You can duplicate the active item, delete it, lock it, group or align it with other items, and change its shape or content type. If you have a path selected, you can edit its segments or anchor points. You can convert editable text to picture boxes. This menu also lets you set up sharing and synchronization of items and their content, create nonprinting notes, and scale one or more items and control how their content and attributes are scaled. If you’re building an e-book from a complex layout, this is where you add text for reflowing.

QuarkXPress provides two different menu items to remove selected page items or text: Edit ⇒ Cut and Item ⇒ Delete. What’s the difference? Edit ⇒ Cut moves the item or text to your computer’s clipboard so that you can then choose Edit ⇒ Paste to paste that item somewhere else. However, the clipboard can hold only one item or chunk of text at a time. So what if you have some text on the clipboard and want to remove a page item — without losing the text on the clipboard? Choose Item ⇒ Delete instead! Also, even if you’re currently using the Text Content or Picture Content tool (instead of the Item tool), you can still click an item and use Item ⇒ Delete to remove it. Smart QuarkXPress users memorize the Command/Ctrl-K shortcut for Item ⇒ Delete. You can easily remember this command if you think of this: “Kill this item!”

The Page menu

This one’s simple: Use the Page menu for inserting, deleting, or moving pages, for going directly to a page, or for displaying the Master page assigned to the current page. The Page menu is also where you create or edit a section, which is useful for controlling page numbering in a long document. If you’re working on setting up a Master page, this is where you access its margin guides, column guides, and gridlines.

The Layout menu

Commands related to managing an entire, multipage layout are here, such as deleting an entire layout, duplicating it, or adding a new layout to the project. The Layout menu is also where you can change layout properties you set initially when you created the project, such as the layout’s name, page size, orientation, and output intent (print or digital). You can share your layout so that others can work on it, and create a new Layout Specification for Job Jackets. (Job Jackets are a collection of requirements and limitations for specific kinds of projects; they ensure that your layouts will output properly. I tell you more about Job Jackets in Chapter 7.) If you’re making an e-book, you can enter its metadata here and add the entire content of a layout to the reflow in the e-book. And last, in case you’re not fond of clicking the Layout tabs to switch to a different layout, you can choose a layout from a list, or switch to the previous, next, first, or last layout in the project.

The Table menu

When you’re working with a table, you find all the ways to change it on this menu. You can select, insert, or delete rows and columns, select gridlines, combine cells, break the table into pieces, and create headers and footers. This menu is also where you convert tabbed text to a true table, convert a table into text boxes, and link text cells so that text flows from one to the other.

The View menu

The View menu controls all aspects of what you see on your page and how you see it. Use this menu to control the view percentage, and how you see guides and grids, rulers, invisible characters, and item tags. You can turn on highlighting for content variables (text that is automatically created based on its location in the layout, such as running headers or footers) and cross references (as used in books), and edit text in a special Story Editor that’s like a word processor.

Because QuarkXPress lets you extend items off the edge of the page (also known as a bleed), you can view your page as if the bleed were trimmed off. (A bleed is necessary when a page item extends to the edge of a printed page, because a commercial printer will print your page on larger paper and then trim off the excess — just in case the cutter isn’t accurate.) And because QuarkXPress lets you set any item to be suppressed when printing or exporting, you can hide any suppressed items. (A suppressed item appears in the layout but is not included when exporting or printing. Some items are suppressed automatically, such as nonprinting Notes). In a Print layout, the View menu is also where you go to preview how a layout’s colors will print on various devices (color spaces).

And finally (but very important), you use the View menu to save, manage, and choose among View Sets, which are combinations of View settings. Some examples are Authoring view, which helps when you’re working on page content, and Output Preview, which lets you quickly see how the page will look when printed. You learn all about View Sets later in this chapter.

The Utilities menu

Longtime QuarkXPress users may forget the first time they discovered the spell-checking tools in the Utilities menu and concluded that this menu holds a hodge-podge of commands and tools that don’t fit under the other menus. New users are about to have that same “a-ha!” experience. If you’re a wordsmith, you’ll want to remember that the spell-checking, word count, and content variable controls are here (not in the Edit menu). The Usage utility is also here, which every user needs to manage fonts and linked pictures.

Following are the tools on the Utilities menu:

• Insert Character: Lets you insert special characters such as breaking and nonbreaking spaces.
• Content Variable: A content variable is text that is automatically created based on its location in the layout, such as a running header or footer. This tool lets you create, edit, insert, and remove a content variable or convert one to text.
• Check Spelling: Check the spelling of a word, a selection of text, a story, a layout, or all Master pages in a layout. On a Mac, Auxiliary Dictionary and Edit Auxiliary are here, too — see explanations in the next two items.
• Auxiliary Dictionary (Windows only): Lets you specify an auxiliary dictionary for use in spell checking. (You create an auxiliary dictionary and add words to it that you want QuarkXPress to spell check and hyphenate in addition to the words in the built-in dictionary. For example, you might add industry-specific or discipline-specific terms.)
• Edit Auxiliary (Windows only): Lets you edit the auxiliary dictionary associated with the active layout. This is where you add, edit, and hyphenate words in the auxiliary dictionary.
• Word and Character Count: Displays the number of words and characters in the active layout or story.
• Line Check: Finds widows (a lone word on a line at the top of a page), orphans (a lone word at the bottom of a page), loosely justified lines, lines that end with a hyphen, and overflow text.
• Suggested Hyphenation: Displays the suggested hyphenation for the current word when it breaks at the end of a line.
• Hyphenation Exceptions: Lets you view and edit the exceptions as well as import and export lists of language-specific hyphenation exceptions.
• Convert Project Language: Lets you convert all the characters in the active project that use a particular character language to a different character language.
• Usage: Lets you view and update the status of fonts, pictures, color profiles, tables, Composition Zones, and assets used in layouts.
• Item Styles Usage: Lets you view and update applied Item Styles.
• Job Jackets Manager: Job Jackets are a collection of requirements and limitations for specific kinds of projects; they ensure that your layouts will output properly. This menu item displays the Job Jackets Manager dialog box.
• Build Index: Creates an index from the contents of the Index palette.
• Insert Placeholder Text: Generates random text in the active text box.
• Cloner: Displays the Cloner dialog box, which lets you copy items or pages to one or more other layouts and projects.
• ImageGrid: Displays the ImageGrid dialog box, which lets you create a grid of picture boxes and fill them with pictures from a folder.
• Tracking Edit (Windows only; under Edit menu on Mac): Lets you control tracking (letter spacing for a selection of text) for installed fonts.
• Kerning Table Edit (Windows only; under Edit menu on Mac): Lets you control kerning, or the spacing between each specific pair of letters, for installed fonts.
• Linkster: Displays the Linkster dialog box, which lets you link and unlink text boxes in various ways. You learn much more about working with text boxes in Chapter 8.
• ShapeMaker: Displays the ShapeMaker dialog box, which creates boxes in a mind-boggling number of different shapes.
• Remove Manual Kerning (Windows only; under Style menu on Mac): Lets you remove all manual kerning applied between characters.
• Font Mapping: Lets you create and edit rules for substituting a new font for a font that is requested when you open a project, but which is not active on your computer.
• Component Status (Windows only): Lets you view the status of required software components.
• PPD Manager: Lets you control which PostScript Printer Description files (PPDs) are loaded in the Print dialog box.
• Convert Old Underlines: Converts all underlines in the active story from QuarkXPress 3.x (Stars & Stripes) format to Type Tricks format.
• XTensions Manager: Lets you control which XTensions are loaded when you launch QuarkXPress.
• Profile Manager: Lets you control which color profiles are loaded in QuarkXPress.
• Make QR Code: Lets you generate Quick Response (QR) codes directly within QuarkXPress and then style and color them the way you want.
• Redline: Enable and disable automatic tracking and highlighting of text changes or display the Redline palette.
• Check Out License/Check In License: If you have installed Quark License Administrator (QLA), this tool lets you check licenses in and out.

The Window menu

The Window menu lets you manage how you view the projects that are currently open and which palettes are displayed. You can tile multiple projects to see them all at one time, and split one project window into multiple panes (which is useful for working on one part of a layout while also viewing another part of it). The Window menu is also where you control whether your palettes display all the time or only when you move your mouse to the edge of your display. In addition, you can manually invoke the Welcome screen, which lets you open your recently opened projects, create new projects, and access information resources about QuarkXPress.

Opening, closing, resizing, and moving palettes

To display a palette, choose its name from the Window menu. To close a palette, click the close box in the upper-left corner of the palette or deselect the palette name in the Window menu. Some palettes can also be opened and closed by pressing the keyboard shortcut shown next to the palette’s name in the Window menu.

To resize a palette, click and drag any edge or corner. To move a palette, drag its title bar.

Grouping palettes

Because QuarkXPress has almost 30 different palettes you can open, it also lets you glue them together into palette groups that stay together as you move them. The steps to create a palette group depend on whether you’re using a Mac or Windows:

• On a Mac: Click the gear icon at the top right of any palette. A menu appears that lists every palette in QuarkXPress. Choose one to add it to the top of this palette group. If you choose a palette that’s already open, it moves to become part of this palette group. To remove a palette from the palette group, choose it again from the gear icon menu.
• In Windows: Right-click the title bar of a palette and choose any palette name. If you choose a palette that’s already open, it moves to become part of this palette group. To remove a palette from the palette group, right-click the palette name and choose Detach palette name.

Docking palettes

You can dock a palette or palette group to the left or right edge of your display by dragging it until a blue area appears around it. When you release the mouse, that palette (or palette group) positions itself in the optimum location against that edge. This docking feature also makes palette hiding possible (see the next section).

Because of the Measurements palette’s width, you can dock it only horizontally, to the upper or lower edge of your display. You can dock the Tools palette either vertically or horizontally.

Hiding palettes (Mac only)

When it comes to working with palettes, Mac users have an advantage over their Windows-using counterparts. After docking a group of palettes, Mac users can hide the group by choosing Window ⇒ Turn Hiding On and then choosing which docked palettes to hide. When you do that, the palettes disappear beyond the edge of your display. When you move your mouse over that area again, the palettes reappear. If you have a small display, hiding palettes is a great way to keep those palettes handy but out of the way to maximize your project space.

Using palette sets

After working on a few projects in QuarkXPress, you may find that you keep some palettes open and others closed while performing certain tasks such as editing text, working with tables, designing a publication, or adding interactivity. By all means, make use of palette sets! This feature lets you store and recall the position and status of all open palettes and libraries so that you can easily switch among different palette arrangements. (To learn about libraries, see Chapter 4.)

To create a palette set, you first display all the palettes that you need for a particular task and hide all other palettes. Then you choose Window ⇒ Palette Sets ⇒ Save Palette Set As and enter a name for your set in the Save As dialog box that appears. If you think that you'll frequently switch to this palette set, you might also want to assign a keyboard shortcut to it (as explained in the next paragraph). To retrieve a palette set, choose Window ⇒ Palette Sets ⇒ name of palette set or press the keyboard shortcut for that palette set.

To delete, rename, or assign a keyboard shortcut to an existing palette set, open the Edit Palette Sets dialog box by choosing Window ⇒ Palette Sets ⇒ Edit Palette Sets. Select the palette set in the Edit Palette Sets dialog box and either give it a new name or click the minus (–) icon to delete it. To assign a keyboard shortcut to a palette set, select the set in the dialog box, click the Add Shortcut button, and then press your preferred combination of modifier keys along with a letter, number, or F-key. (Modifier keys on a Mac include Shift, Option, Command, and Control; modifier keys in Windows include Shift, Alt, and Ctrl.) To edit a keyboard shortcut, click the shortcut next to its name and then press your new shortcut keys.

Oddly, QuarkXPress doesn’t include a default palette set. So, before you go creating new ones, you may want to save the default palette arrangement as its own set. That way you can get back to what Quark believes is a basic set of useful palettes. Call it “the Palette Set Quark should have included” or maybe just “Default Palette Set.”

Searching palettes

You may find that some projects use a ridiculous number of style sheets, colors, or hyperlinks. Thankfully, those three palettes have a search feature that helps you find the one you need. To use it, click the Search field at the top of the list of items in the palette and type in part of the name of the item you want. The list will shorten to display only those items that contain the letters you type.

Using the Pan tool

Using the Pan tool is as simple as can be: Hold your mouse button down on the page and drag around. This is handy when you're zoomed in so far that you can't see the entire page.

Using the scroll bars

Just as you do in any window on your computer, if you have more to see than can fit in the window, you can drag the scroll box in the vertical and horizontal scroll bars to see what’s out of sight. You can also click the empty area outside the scroll box to jump one screenful in that direction.

Using the Page Up and Page Down keys

If your keyboard has special keys marked Page Up and Page Down, you can use those keys to quickly scroll through your layout pages:

• Page Up: Scroll one screenful up
• Page Down: Scroll one screenful down
• Shift+Page Up: Go to previous page
• Shift+Page Down: Go to next page

Using the Zoom tool

The Zoom tool works as you might expect: Click on the page to zoom into that area. (It zooms 25 percent at a time, but you can change this amount in the Tools section of the QuarkXPress Preferences.) But the Zoom tool also has a couple of hidden tricks:

• To zoom out of a page, hold down the Option (Mac) or Alt (Windows) or key while clicking with the Zoom tool.
• To enlarge a particular area to fill your document window, click and drag with the Zoom tool around that area, rather than simply clicking that area. A marquee appears as you drag, and when you let go of your mouse, that area fills your window.

Zooming (even better) with your keyboard and mouse

Although you can also choose various view percentages from the View menu, or use the Zoom and Pan tools, a faster way to zoom in and out of your page is to use your keyboard and mouse instead. Here's how:

• Zoom into an area: Hold down Control (Mac) or Ctrl+Shift (Windows) and drag a marquee around an area of your page. QuarkXPress magnifies that area to fill your window, or to 8000 percent, whichever comes first.
• Pan around your page: Press Option (Mac) or Alt+spacebar (Windows) and drag. This gives you the Pan tool until you let up on the key.
• Zoom into an item: You can also zoom in by pressing Command/Ctrl++ (plus sign) and zoom out with Command/Ctrl-– (minus sign). The + and – sign keys are to the right of the 0 key on your keyboard. Each time you press these keys, you zoom in or out in 25 percent increments, but you can change that amount in the Zoom Tool setting in the Tools section of the QuarkXPress Preferences.

• Zoom to a precise view percentage: Press Control/Ctrl+V to highlight the View Percentage area at the bottom-left corner of your document window and then type any view percentage you'd like.

  The View Percentage field isn't limited to numbered percentages; you can type T to view your document as Thumbnails!

• Fit page in window: Press Command-0 (Mac) or Ctrl+0 (Windows).
• Fit the Pasteboard and the page (or spread if there is one) in window: Press Option-Command-0 (Mac) or Alt+Ctrl+0 (Windows).
• 100% (Actual Size) view: Press Command-1 (Mac) or Ctrl+1 (Windows).

On a Mac that has a trackpad, you can zoom out by pinching with two fingers, or zoom in by spreading two fingers apart. When a picture box is selected and the Picture Content tool is active, you can use two fingers to rotate the picture inside its box.

Splitting a window

You have three ways to split a window:

• Choose Window ⇒ Split Window ⇒ Horizontal or Window ⇒ Split Window ⇒ Vertical.
• (Windows only) Click the split bar to the right of the scroll bar (for a vertical split) or at the top of the scroll bar (for a horizontal split).
• Click the split window icons in the layout controls area at the bottom left of the project window (refer to Figure 2-2).

After a window has been split, you can change the width and height of the splits by dragging the bars between the splits.

You can split panes multiple times horizontally or vertically within a pane, to see several views of your project at the same time. To do that, use the same window-splitting techniques mentioned previously in this section.

Removing splits and panes

To remove one pane, click the Close button (X) in the top-right corner of the pane. To remove all split panes from a window, choose Window ⇒ Split Window ⇒ Remove All.