Today’s designer needs to be able to work with both QuarkXPress and InDesign documents. Fortunately, Markzware makes tools that let you convert documents from one format to the other.

Their newly-updated Q2ID plug-in for InDesign lets InDesign versions CS5, CS5.5 and CS6 open documents last saved in QuarkXPress versions 3 through 9. (The plug-in must run on InDesign for Mac OS X, but the documents it converts can be from either the Mac or Windows version of QuarkXPress.)

Q2ID provides a remarkably accurate conversion, but keep in mind that text will usually reflow due to differing text engines, and features used in QuarkXPress that are not present in InDesign will be ignored. Q2ID costs $199.

Markzware also makes ID2Q, which lets QuarkXPress open InDesign files.

Jay Nelson

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.