Errors So Many QuarkXPress Users Make
If you have recently started using QuarkXPress, you may find yourself making some of the errors outlined in this article. Take a second to read through our top beginner pitfalls and spare yourself a little frustration in getting to grips with your new software.
When creating a new project, many QuarkXPress beginners will pay absolutely no attention to the settings in the New Project dialogue box. These settings are the ones used last time a project was created on that computer. They may or may not be the right settings for the new project you are about to create.
People who are new to QuarkXPress will often shy away from placing content on the margin guides, leaving a little gap instead. They are mistaking the blue margin guides for the edges of the page. In fact, the edge of the page is indicated by the outer black frame.
There are two main ways of aligning elements on a QuarkXPress page: ruler guides and measurements. Most new QuarkXPress users are seduced by the ease with which guides can be created (just drag them onto the page from either the horizontal or vertical ruler) and end up with a page covered in these green guides. Guides are very useful but it is often just as easy to change the X and Y measurements of elements. Making the X measurements the same aligns left edges, Y aligns top edges. The measurements window will also perform basic calculations for you. For example, to double the gap to the left of a text box, just tye “*2″ (i.e. multiplied by 2) after the current X value and press Enter.
Incorrect use of guides is another basic error frequently encounter among QuarkXPress users. A typical scenario is where you want to create a new element and align it with something that’s already on the page. So you drag a guide onto the page and align it with the existing element. Then you create your second element and snap it to the guide. This means that only the first element is actually aligned with the guide. Remember, the snap is what makes guides useful. So dragging a guide and aligning it to the edge of a box by eye won’t do. You need to go back to the first element and ensure that it too is snapped onto the guide.
When you create a new project in QuarkXPress, you will notice an option marked “Automatic Text Box”. This feature is designed to be used with long documents consisting mainly of text. It’s not really meant to be used for short documents or documents consisting of only one page.
The automatic text box feature is great for long documents. However, you will often see QuarkXPress users activating this option when creating short documents or even documents consisting of a single page. They make the assumption that all the feature does is to save them the trouble of creating a text box. In fact, if the text box ever becomes filled with text (which can easily happen as you experiment with different text formats), a new page is immediately generated and your single page document becomes a two page document.
Another simple error new QuarkXPress users tend to make, is clicking on the text box tool then trying to edit text. This one is not so serious since it’s a non-starter: the only thing you can do with the text box tool is create text boxes. The correct tool for editing text is the Content tool, the second tool on the QuarkXPress toolbar.
Another popular type of confusion with the QuarkXPress tools is when to use the Item tool and when to use the Content tool. One often sees beginners trying to edit or import text while the Item tool is selected. Like the text box tool error, it’s not such a biggie since sooner or later you will remember that you have to select the Content tool before you access the text inside the box.
You will often see new QuarkXPress users highlighting the Item tool when resizing text or picture boxes. This is not necessary since resizing a box can be done whether the item or content tool is selected.
QuarkXPress novices also tend to create far more text boxes than they need to. The worst error people will make is to create a separate box for each different style of text. In actual fact, you can put as many different formats as you like in a single Quark text box. You only need separate text boxes for items which have no direct relation to each other within the layout or which require conflicting text box attributes. So if some of your text is spans two columns and another bit spans one column, you will clearly need to boxes.
Focusing on the box rather than the content is another basic error made by inexperienced QuarkXPress users. Unless the user specifies otherwise, QuarkXPress text and picture boxes do not print. Only their contents will actually print. However, many users insist on carefully vertically centring the text within a box forgetting that, to all intents and purposes, there is no box there. The solution to this one is F7 (a shortcut for View – Guides) which hides margin and ruler guides as well as the frame normally shown around text and picture boxes.