Free XTension: Acronyms
Vision’s Edge’s Acronyms is a free XTension for QuarkXPress 6, 7 or 8 that searches your Layout for uppercase acronyms and replaces them with lower case Small Caps. For example, PDF becomes pdf, styled in Small Caps. As an example, look for RTF and PDF in this story:
You can control the minimum and maximum number of uppercase characters it should consider an acronym.
If you don’t trust it yet, you can optionally confirm each conversion.
We have used Acronyms to convert the hundreds of ugly ALL CAPS acronyms to pretty Small Caps on the pages of each issue of Design Tools Monthly for many, many years.
Now, because Quark’s default settings for Small Caps aren’t (in my opinion) the best, here’s a special tip to make your Small Caps look MUCH better: Better Small Caps
Pick up Acronyms at www.visionsedge.com
Jay Nelson is the editorial director of PlanetQuark.com, and the editor and publisher of Design Tools Monthly. He’s also the author of the QuarkXPress 8 and QuarkXPress 7 training titles at Lynda.com, as well as the training videos Quark includes in the box with QuarkXPress 7 . In addition, Jay writes regularly for Macworld and Photoshop User magazines and speaks at industry events.