In this issue:
-- InDesign's "Other" Paste in Place
-- Quark 6 Fixes and Support Update


Issue 9, 11/3/03
Written by Anne-Marie "HerGeekness" Concepcion

© 2003 Seneca Design & Training, Inc.


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InDesign's *Other* Paste in Place

In InDesign, when you've sucked something into your clipboard via cutting or copying (Command/Control-X or -C), and then paste it (Command/Control-V), the item appears smack in the middle of your InDesign window.

What if you want the pasted item to appear at the exact same page coordinates as the original item? Like you're trying to get the same icon to appear in the same spot on a few of your pages ... do you have to select the original item and jot down what the Transform palette says so you can enter it again on the new page?

Au contraire, as any smug InDesign user (or PageMaker user for that matter) knows. Instead of Paste, you'd use its big brother, "Paste in Place" from the Edit menu. (Or for you keyboard shortcut freaks out there, add Option/Alt and Shift to the regular Paste shortcut. Basically just lean on the lower left quadrant of your keyboard.) That puts the clipboard item right where you want it.

But ... there's another Paste in Place command hiding in InDesign. If you drag an item into an InDesign Library (that you've created via New->Library), you can get those items to appear on your pages at the same coordinates as the original too.

The trick is to select the item in the Library as usual but don't drag and drop it onto your page. Instead, use the Library palette menu's Place command. Place here acts just like "Paste in Place." And since it tracks the coordinates of any item you drag into the Library, it's like having multiple Clipboards.

The items in the Library remember their "place" even after you close the document or library and re-open it, and even among different documents, too, as long as the documents share the same basic Document set up (dimensions, orientation, and facing pages setting).

By the way, this tip works in both InDesign 2.0 and InDesign 3.0 errr I mean InDesign CS.
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Quark 6.0 Fixes

Here's an actual headline from a current Quark web page:

   "QuarkXPress 6 technical difficulties reported for Mac users"

What a scoop! LOL

Okay, at least they're being upfront about it. The technical difficulty they're referring to has to do with what happens to your Quark Activation when you upgrade from Jaguar (OS 10.2) to Panther (OS 10.3). What happens is your activation goes bye-bye, and in some cases, a message appears saying you have to reinstall the entire application because it's corrupted.

Quark explains a few different ways to get around the unpleasantness on the above-titled page here:
http://www.quark.com/products/xpress/tech_info/technical_bulletin_mac.html

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v6.0, We Thought We'd Hardly Knew Ye By Now
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Yes, we're all still waiting for 6.01 to come out (I had heard a rumor it'd be out in October, so much for rumors) which would hopefully had added some features (same rumors said it'd add the ability to Save As v4, and would allow you to import Word and Excel tables) and fixed some bugs.

Bugs? That's so uncouth. The genteel term is "Known Issues:"

Known Issues with Quark 6 for Macs/Windows:
http://www.quark.com/products/xpress/tech_info/60knownissues.html

Known Issues with Quark 4/5 on Mac OS X:
http://www.quark.com/service/desktop/support/techinfo/technotes.jsp?idx=105

Our friends at Badia Software have released a bunch of free XTensions for Quark 6, one of which fixes a Known Issue for some Mac OS X users: Instead of a layout or project's filename appearing in the printer's marks area on a page sent to a RIP, it says "Unknown." Makes it kinda hard to track which pages belong with which job, especially in a busy pre-press production environment.

Badia FixUnknown XT
http://www.badiaxt.com/freebies.html

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Support Sources Update
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Way back in DesignGeek #4 (August 5, 2003), I wrote a story about how Quark took down their online support forums from their web site. I also listed a few alternate on-line sources for getting answers to your particular Quark 6 (and 5/4/3.32 for that matter) problems.

The situation hasn't changed in regards to Quark's own forums, unfortunately.

So... if you haven't joined the QXP mailing list yet (mentioned in that issue as the top resource) here's the subscription page again:
http://www.xpressobar.com/tips/quarkxpr.web.shtml

And remember when I talked about how difficult it was to find online bulletin boards/forums at design-related sites where Quarkers could exchange information without getting bashed left and right by InDesign zealots? And how MacDesign Online's Quark forum seemed to be one of the few safe havens for Quarkers?

Well it still is for the most part, but there's one thread in their Quark forum whose "Topic" (subject) cracked me up:

     "If you don't like it, get the hell out!" (90 messages)

... yes, one Quark user finally had had enough ("this is what I work with, this is what I'm going to work with, we are not switching 20 plus copies of Quark to InDesign") and told the "InDesign groupies" to stick with their own forum.

Over the next few weeks, the thread degenerated into quite lewd commentary and finally died, choking and sputtering, in mid-October. But it's still there if you want to take a look:
http://www.macdesignonline.com/ubb/Forum8/HTML/000148.html

I think the stress is getting to us... Quark or InDesign? OS 9 or OS X? PDF or application files? Single Adobe upgrades or the Creative Suite? Potatoes or Stovetop Stuffing? AAGH! What exciting times ...



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OS X TRANSITION:
A SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR DESIGN STAFF AND MANAGEMENT

If you're in San Francisco, southern California, Washington D.C. or Seattle, you too can attend Anne-Marie's seminar, now updated for Panther, and fine-tuned by the wonderful "beta testers" who attended the Chicago seminar.

Why attend? Well, in addition to receiving a ton of useful resource and step-by-step guides she created explicitly for this seminar, and a great OS X book, you'll discover all the ins and outs of moving your design/production workflow to OS X without a hitch. Yes, she'll cover installing OS X and how to use the Dock and so on, but a big focus will be on publishing-critical topics such as font management, file sharing, user account strategies for design workgroups, printing, and optimizing Classic for seamless performance (yes, you *can* use Quark 4 or 5 in OS X!).

Anne-Marie is a seasoned OS X user in a design studio environment, as well as an OS X trainer for other design and publishing workgroups (if you can't make the seminar, call to arrange custom training at your site). You'll have plenty of time in the seminar to discuss your particular OS X concerns for your workflow.