Comments on: QuarkXPress 8: New Keyboard Shortcuts for Tools

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 26 May 2010 16:36:24 +0000

Regarding the exporting to PDF without going to menus, I do this all day long too. Of course there is a keyboard shortcut! On the Mac it is cmd-option-P. From there you can define lots of things (compression, meta data, etc.), and for the most part they remain intact the next time you export the same layout, saving you time.

( I also recommend using DropBox as a destination for your PDF proofs, then invite your client to view the most recent proof there. I also keep my XPress backup layouts in a DropBox folder, just in case.)

By: Myriam

Myriam — Mon, 10 May 2010 14:05:16 +0000

Hey, i’m new to quark 8 and it looks like my quick keys are not activated like ctrl-Z . I never had to activate them myself.
Can anybody help me??

thx

By: Jay Nelson

Jay Nelson — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 22:07:29 +0000

Q: Great reminder! I think I’ll make Control-clicking a tip all by itself. Thanks!

By: Q

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:58:03 +0000

Making PDF

If you right click on the pasteboard, you can then go export as PDF.
Avoids the menu bar all together. Much faster IMO.

By: Jay Nelson

Jay Nelson — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 22:57:13 +0000

Hey, Marc! Good to hear from you — especially with such a useful observation. Thanks for straightening that out for everyone. As Johnny Carson used to say: “I did not know that!” (it was more endearing when HE said it, though)

By: Marc Horne

Marc Horne — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:47:42 +0000

“Quark, Adobe and Microsoft applications don’t show up in OSX keyboard Shortcuts menu for customization for some reason.”

I think the reason is that we all sit inside folders in the application menu rather than at the top level. So choose the ‘Other…’ option in that list and then you can browse to the Quark, Adobe and Microsoft applications and change your shortcuts.

Marc Horne, Quark Inc.

By: Jay Nelson

Jay Nelson — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:01:16 +0000

Wow Russell, you’re right! I had assumed otherwise. Bad on me. I’m glad Badia came to the rescue. Now I have to go change the Tip that this conversation spawned…

By: Russell Pierce

Russell Pierce — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:49:49 +0000

Thanks for the alternate tips Jay. Quark, Adobe and Microsoft applications don’t show up in OSX keyboard Shortcuts menu for customization for some reason. I tried the free Badia extension and it works great. I’m making PDFs with one click now!

By: Jay Nelson

Jay Nelson — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:17:04 +0000

By the way, QuarkXPress 8 has a new “Export Button” prominently displayed at the bottom of every project window:

http://planetquark.com/2008/06/10/quarkxpress-8-tip-the-export-button/

With one click, you can export to PDF or any other format, including to QuarkXPress 7 format. I think it’s a sensible approach. (The Export menu item still exists, so your existing automation you set up will still work.)

By: Jay Nelson

Jay Nelson — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:13:11 +0000

This is an interesting philosophical question. From what I could tell, Adobe added the keyboard customization feature for two reasons: 1.) They needed to provide a way for QuarkXPress users to quickly get up to speed in InDesign. To do that, they had to have a set of keyboard shortcuts that matched Quark’s. 2.) They had so many menu items in so many places that it was impossible to assign sensible keyboard shortcuts to everything. So, they leave it up to the user to decide which menu items need keyboard shortcuts.

Quark is taking a different approach: simplicity and consistency. Once you allow customization of keyboard shortcuts, then there’s no guarantee that the copy of Quark you sit down to will be useful to you because someone else may have customized the shortcuts. (Yes, Adobe has a way to reset the shortcuts, but you have to know how to do that.) That’s consistency.

Simplicity: Quark has been actively *reducing* the number of places a user needs to go to perform a task. Custom keyboard shortcuts adds a level of complexity that is at odds with this philosophy.

ALL THAT SAID, I agree with you. For now, you can add your own keyboard shortcuts in any of several ways:

Badia LiveKeys Light (free) or Pro ($50):
http://planetquark.com/2007/08/21/badia-livekeys-20-light-2/
as the story says:
“You can use it to assign shortcuts to menu items that don’t have shortcuts, or change them to ones you’ll remember (or to match shortcuts in other applications). You can also assign shortcuts to Style Sheets that are easier to remember than Option-#.”

Use QuicKeys ($80) to add your own shortcuts, actions, and much much more:
http://www.quickeys.com

Use the built-in Mac OS X Keyboard Shortcuts editor. Open Preferences> Keyboard & Mouse and click on the tab labeled Keyboard Shortcuts. Scroll to the bottom where it says “Application Keyboard Shortcuts”, click the plus button, choose your application, and type in the exact name of the menu item you want to add a keyboard shortcut to.

I don’t know if there’s an equivalent on Windows.

How do you like those options? I like LiveKeys because it’s free. I like the Mac OS option because it’s free and works with any application. I like QuicKeys because you can automate just about any task you can think of.