QuarkXpress in Classic
Posted on January 27, 2003
Revised on February 10, 2005
As we all know, Quark Inc. is taking its sweet time releasing version 6, which will be Carbonized for OS X. Until then, we're stuck using QuarkXpress in Classic. (Update (Feb. 10, 05): QuarkXpress 6 has now been out for a while, and is at version 6.5 as of this date.) Here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Contrary to Quark's claim, QuarkXpress 4 does still have redraw problems in Classic. There are a few Xtensions that help with the issue: RedrawClassic XT and Classic Draw XT. Unfortunately, these don't work with QuarkXpress 5. However, it should be noted that QuarkXpress 5 has far fewer redraw problems. Also, remember the force redraw command, Command-Option-. (period), which works in both versions. In some severe cases where UI widgets (such as the toolbar) may have disappeared, you need to switch to the Finder and back.
- The Command-Tab shortcut that was used so frequently in QuarkXpress (to switch between tools as well as tabs in the print menu) is no longer available because it's used by the Application Switcher. In OS 9, it was easy to turn off this Windows-like shortcut using the Mac's built-in Help system, but in OS X we're stuck with it. We can only hope that Quark replaces this extremely useful shortcut with another key in version 6. (Update (Feb. 10, 05): Use Command-Option-Tab instead.)
- The Dock has also taken over the shortcut Command-Option-D to hide and show the Dock. This was QuarkXpress's shortcut for Step and Repeat. (Update: MacScripter.net has an AppleScript (direct link to file) that can change QuarkXpress's shortcut to something else.) (Update (Feb. 10, 05): This shortcut still hasn't been fixed in version 6.5, so the only solution is to change the system's shortcut to show/hide the Dock.)
- QuarkXpress 5's improved Collect for Output feature unfortunately collects all imported images and logos into a separate "images" folder (which is not always desirable), and there doesn't seem to be any way to turn off this behaviour. (Update (Feb. 10, 05): This has not been fixed in version 6.5)
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