Quark did a lot of re-thinking when it redesigned the interface for QuarkXPress 8, and for longtime users, the new arrangement of things can be a bit confusing. Recently, I received a complaint that Quark had removed the rounded-corner rectangle tool, as well as all the other “shape” tools that formerly lived under the Picture and Text box tools.
My first reaction to questions like this is “Simma down now…“ I don’t remember Quark EVER removing a feature from QuarkXPress.
Here’s the deal: to simplify the Tools palette, Quark re-thought how the tools work together. So, for the “box shapes” they simplified your choices to a rectangle, circle and starburst.
To make a rounded-corner rectangle, you now create a rectangle and then change its corner style in the Measurements palette.
In addition, they removed the requirement that you choose ahead of time whether the box will contain Text or a Picture. That’s why there’s nothing under the Picture Content tool. And it also gave Quark the opportunity to move the Text Box Linking tools to under the Text Content tool — a logical choice, in my opinion.
Try this: create a rectangle box, then look in the Classic tab of the Measurements palette. There, you’ll see a “Box Corner Radius” control. This gives you all the corner shapes you had before: rounded corner, concave, and beveled.
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5. June 2009 at 8:41 am
Yes but creating a rectangle with rounded corners then editing them and leave two corners rounded with two corners square used to be easy. now it is a pain. At least I haven’t found an easy way.
Ted
5. June 2009 at 9:33 am
Isn’t it the same as before? (Make the box, round the corners, edit the shape?)
5. June 2009 at 2:38 pm
No…. when you edit the corners, you get all kinds of problems with the BCPs. I did find though that you can make a rectangle, round the corners, then make another rectangle that covers the left side of the rounded rect. then use the tools at Item > Merge and take the difference. Then I get the left side perfectly straight and the right side rounded.
26. June 2009 at 9:47 am
I couldn’t figure out from the help menu how to make a simple round picture box. After a while I thought of a work-around. It’s a bit convoluted and slow but it works. 1. create a square picture box then use the rounded corners tool and specify half the measurement of the box and then you get a round picture box. Just don’t think about resizing it because you’ll have to rework your calculations. Bit of a pain. It seems to me that much of the simplicity of the Q7 series has been lost in Q8, and it has been done in the name of simplicity. Frankly it does not surprise me that Quark has lost ground to Indesign.
29. June 2009 at 7:36 am
Ted: that’s certainly an approach that works — in fact, I wrote a tip that illustrates how to do that. But I think if you get the Bezier pen tool and hold down the Option/Alt key when clicking on the rounded corner handles, they’ll straighten out.
29. June 2009 at 7:39 am
Jonathan: there is Round box tool, as shown above. It’s important to remember that Quark now doesn’t force you to use a Picture box tool to make a box for a picture. In fact, there isn’t even a “Picture box” tool — it’s a picture content tool that happens to let you drag out a picture box if you want one.
Instead, just make a round box and drop a picture into it. Simple!
1. August 2009 at 8:03 pm
It’s hard to believe that Quark would make creating a round picture/text box in Q8 so dificult…
I think the new interface is throwing some people for a loop! However, the new Tool Palette makes good sense ONCE YOU GET USED TO IT. Not having to predefine what ‘kind’ of box you want is a brilliant move in itself [power users should love it]. I just started using Q8 and still learning my way around [most menu items are familiar, though].
I don’t have much love loss for version 7x, and looking forward to being as fluent in 8x. Getting used to the new interface does present a small curve, but I believe this is a better direction, and foundation for future versions of QX.
11. August 2009 at 4:20 pm
I started using Q5 and migrated up. I didn’t notice that the tools had changed that much from 7 to 8. Thay make alot of sense and seem quite intuative to me. When I switch back to 7 now which I occasionally do I find it quite heavy going compared with the 8 interface.
28. October 2009 at 1:05 am
How do I make an irregular shaped picture box in 8. This is driving me crazy. Is the tool hidden somewhere to draw a freeform box? …my world is so not limited to squares, circles and stars… help! ;) thanks
28. October 2009 at 9:20 am
Polly: You’re looking for the Pen tools, which include a Freeform drawing tool. Check out this post from July 10:
http://planetquark.com/2009/07/10/the-newold-bezier-pen-tools/