Author: Ted Locascio

Flash vs. Quark Interactive Designer

XTensionsNo Comments

There’s no doubt that Adobe Flash is the most popular tool for creating interactive SWF projects, but as working professionals with constant, unforgiving deadlines, who has time to learn such a complicated application, let alone an entire scripting language like ActionScript? The benefit to using Quark’s Interactive Designer is that you can now create interactive multimedia presentations and web content without having to learn a whole new authoring environment and scripting language.

With Quark Interactive Designer, the tools are completely intuitive, because they are based on object behavior rather than timelines—and the best part is that you don’t have to learn ActionScript. That’s right. No timelines. No ActionScript code. No confusing interface. Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? But wait, there’s more.

Because it is an XTension, Interactive Designer is completely integrated with QuarkXPress 7, allowing you to convert your print layouts into interactive layouts, and vice versa. Why recreate your layouts in a separate, complicated (and expensive) application like Flash, when you’ve already done the work in QuarkXPress? There’s simply no other application out there that allows you to use your print design and layout skills to create interactive SWF files. And here’s the best part—it works!

The Interactive Palette

Feature1 Comment

When you install the Interactive Designer XTension, several new items are added to the interface of QuarkXPress 7. The most important of these is the Interactive palette, which is accessible under the Window menu. The Interactive palette is your main resource for working with objects, user events, and actions.

Interactive Palette

The Interactive palette is made up of several panes that allow you to create objects, and assign user events and actions. You can access these panes by clicking the buttons at the top of the palette. Each pane contains several dynamic dropdown lists, which will automatically change depending on the choices you make.

Using the Interactive palette, you can specify any XPress layout item such as a text box, picture box, or line as an interactive object. You can then apply a user event and an action to the object using the controls in the various panes of the Interactive palette.

The Interactive palette contains over 100 different pre-built actions for building dynamic menus, buttons, movie players, event driven audio, and animations. And the best part about creating interactive layouts with pre-built actions in Interactive Designer is that you can do so without ever having to look at a single line of ActionScript code. Creating dynamic SWF content has never been easier.

Objects, User Events and Actions

FeatureNo Comments

In order to create interactive layouts, you first need to understand exactly what objects, user events, and actions are in Quark Interactive Designer. Here are some brief definitions of each:

Objects: These are the pieces of your layout that the end user interacts with. An object can be any text box, picture box, or line that you specify as an interactive object using the Interactive palette. It’s important to understand that objects are what all interactive presentations are made up of. Without them, there can be no interactivity. Remember: it all starts with objects.

User Events: This is what the end user does with the mouse, such as clicking in a certain area of the layout, or placing the mouse pointer over a specific object. Some examples are Click Down and Mouse Enter. Every action in an interactive layout is triggered by a user event.

Actions: OK, now here’s the interactive part. This is what happens when the end user triggers an object’s user event. There are over 100 different pre-built actions available in Interactive Designer, and the best part is that you can apply them without ever having to look at a single line of ActionScript code. Examples are Play Animation and Display Next Page.

What You Can Create with Quark Interactive Designer

FeatureNo Comments

What you create with Quark Interactive Designer is entirely up to you, but in my opinion, it’s best used to create dynamic standalone presentations. These types of presentations will wow your clients and co-workers at your next meeting, and every meeting after that. Plus, SWF files are smaller and more versatile than PDFs or PowerPoint presentations. To view an SWF created with Interactive Designer, all you need is Flash Player, which most computer operating systems—across both platforms (Mac OS X and Windows XP or Vista)—are already equipped with.

Interactive Designer is also a great tool for creating animated banner ads. Setting one of these up in QuarkXPress 7 is so much easier than doing it in Flash, plus you can use the same design elements that you used in your print campaign without having to import anything. The objects can even be shared, allowing you to make edits globally across all of your QuarkXPress interactive, print, and HTML layouts.

You can also use Quark Interactive Designer to create interactive web content for use in larger HTML based websites. The Interactive palette contains many different actions for building dynamic menus, buttons, movie players, event driven audio, and animations.

What is Quark Interactive Designer?

Commentary2 Comments

By now you must have heard about Quark’s new Interactive Designer plug-in for QuarkXPress 7, but what is it exactly? What can it do?

Believe it or not, Quark Interactive Designer allows you to create exciting, interactive SWF projects using the tools and features that you’re already familiar with in your favorite layout application—QuarkXPress 7.

The “interactive layouts” that you can create with Interactive Designer are in effect, multimedia presentations saved in the versatile SWF format. Quark Interactive Designer can be used as an alternative to Microsoft’s PowerPoint or Apple’s Keynote software to create stand-alone presentations, or to create interactive content for use in larger HTML based websites.

Creating an Interactive layout is simple. All you need to do is create a layout using the same QuarkXPress tools and features that you’re used to working with when creating layouts for print. This includes text and picture boxes, styles, pages, and all of the other tools and palettes available in QuarkXPress 7. Once your layout is complete, you can select objects and make them interactive using the following steps:

  1. Name the objects.
  2. Define the user events that each object should respond to. This is what the person interacting with your layout, called the “end-user,” does with their mouse.
  3. Define the action (or actions) that should be triggered by each user event.
  4. Export the layout in SWF format and use it as a standalone presentation, or as part of a larger HTML based website.

Once you’re comfortable with the basics described above, you can move on to using some of the more advanced features of Interactive Designer, such as creating animations and multi-state buttons, and applying scripts and expressions.