When first installing a new version of QuarkXPress (or any application), it can be helpful to NOT open existing documents in that new version — especially if the documents came from a client who doesn’t have the new version!

One way to keep from making this mistake is to use Rorohiko’s Soxy ($19). Soxy overrides the Mac OS X and Windows behavior where double-clicking a document opens the file in the latest version of an application, instead of in the version that created it.

When you first launch Soxy, it scans your computer for versions of applications and displays a list of your apps. You then tell it which versions of documents you want to open with which versions of apps.

As a bonus, the Macintosh version of Soxy will also change generic document file icons to something more meaningful.

Note: in my testing of version 1.6.9 on Mac OS X, Soxy requires that your QuarkXPress documents have a “.qxp” filename extension or else it doesn’t recognize them.

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.