Category: @QuarkXPress

How to test Mojave (10.14) – and how to revert to your previous version of MacOS

How-to, QuarkXPress 2018No Comments

Yesterday Apple announced the next major version of MacOS, MacOS 10.14, called Mojave. If Apple does the same like the past years, it will most likely be released on Sep 25, 2018.

As always, Apple put some exciting new features and major benefits into the new version of MacOS. And like in the past years, Apple will most likely soon distribute first preview or beta versions of Mojave.

So who wouldn’t want to try it immediately?

And of course risk-free, without jeopardizing production if you have just one Mac. Would be a catastrophe to have switched to a new operating system and then finding out that crucial production software, like QuarkXPress, Photoshop or Affinity Designer, will not run on it or has major issues.

Sure, all vendors will make the newest versions of their software compatible with Mojave; however official support will typically only happen days or weeks after the official release of MacOS 10.14 by Apple.

What if you want or need to test Mojave before with your production software and need a way to revert if not yet satisfied.

Best Practice to test Mojave risk-free

And in any case, as always, have a backup (Time Machine) beforehand. As Murphy says “The only backup you’ll ever need is the one that you didn’t make.”

And – after having made the backup best with Time Machine – turn off your automatic backup while you clone to not interfere.

The idea is

  • First-hand experience, as experience form other users migth differ (they use different tools, different fonts, different hardware).
  • Test in real life, so not a test system but a real production. So it needs to be like your production computer.
  • However you need an easy and quick way to revert (so Time machien could be too time-consuming)

Here’s my suggestion that I have used successfully for years: Create a bootable clone.

  1. Buy an external hard disk large enough to hold your system disk (“Macintosh HD”)
  2. Connect it to your Mac.
  3. Use Disk Utility to format the external disk as “GUID Partition Table”.
  4. Download Carbon Copy Cloner (http://www.bombich.com/index.html). It has a free trial for 30 days; however I strongly recommend purchasing it, as it can save you a lot of trouble and money.
  5. Using CCC clone your hard disk to the external disk. So source is “Macintosh HD” and target is “External Drive”. Clone it completely. Everything. Bootable.
    Note that CCC tells you what it will create before doing it. Read the manual if you are unsure.
  6. Reboot your Mac and hold the Option key pressed. Boot from the external hard disk. Note: This might take  longer than normal, as you are using a connection that is typically a bit slower than an internal hard disk. Test whether everything works as before (ignore the slight difference in speed), it’s important to check that this is a real clone. If everything has worked fine, that’s your 1:1 backup and it’s even bootable.
  7. Shut down your Mac. Unplug external hard disk. Restart.
  8. Now upgrade your Mac to the new MacOS Mojave.
  9. Test everything thoroughly. Test all the applications you use frequently, all goodies, see whether you like the UI, whether all your input and output devices work (scanners, printers etc.). You can even simulate production.
  10. If everything works fine, you are done and can enjoy the new MacOS. Ignore the rest of this list ;-)

And how to revert

  1. First make sure that you backup everything that you changed using the new MacOS, e.g. documents that you worked on. For example, save it to a USB stick.
  2. Now shutdown your Mac. Connect the external hard disk again.
  3. Start your Mac from the external hard disk (by holding the Option key and choosing the external drive).
  4. Use CCC (Carbon Copy Cloner) to duplicate the cloned drive back to your internal hard disk. Clone everything back from source “External Drive” to target “Macintosh HD”. That’s important, don’t clone it the other way around.
  5. Shut down your Mac. Remove external hard disk.
  6. Restart your Mac. Everything should be now exactly the same as it was before you upgraded your Mac. Test it to be sure.
  7. Remember to copy any files you saved on the USB stick to your drive and continue working. Make a mental note to try that in a few weeks again once the applications that haven’t worked correctly are updated to support Mavericks.

Let me know please if this worked for you.

Compatibility information

If you want to see which version of QuarkXPress supports which version of MacOS, please see here:

http://forums.quark.com/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=27713

For other applications, like Affinity or Photoshop, please see also here:

https://roaringapps.com/apps

Progressive Web App (PWA) out of QuarkXPress 2018

Digital Publishing, Learn, QuarkXPress 20181 Comment

Just out of fun I checked whether my recent export for “OpenType typography in HTML5” fulfills the criteria of a PWA (Progressive Web App).

Side note: HTML5 Publications out of QuarkXPress are basically progressive web apps.

And I was surprised:

The HTML5 Publication scored 100 (out of 100) in Lighthouse 2.9.1

So it is 100% compliant.

How to you check PWA compliance?

It’s easy using Chrome and Lighthouse:

  1. Use Google Chrome (the browser) on MacOS or Windows.
  2. Get the Lighthouse extension for Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/lighthouse/blipmdconlkpinefehnmjammfjpmpbjk
  3. Browse to the website you want to audit (my im case: https://www.quarkforums.com/resources/2018/Ligatures/ ).
  4. In Chrome, open Developer Tools (menu “View > Developer > Developer Tools”).
  5. Click on the “Audits” tab.
  6. Click on “Perform an audit…”
  7. If not checked, check “Progressive Web App” and run audit.

How to create a PWA yourself?

With QuarkXPress 2018 you can easily create a new PWA or convert your print layout into a PWA.You can do that using the free trial version of QuarkXPress 2018:

http://www.quark.com/Products/QuarkXPress/Test_Drive.aspx

Here’s a recent webinar showing you how:

QuarkXPress 2018 – Recensione di un designer italiano

Digital Publishing, JavaScript, QuarkXPress 2018, Typography2 Comments

Quark rilascia Xpress 2018 (v. 14.0). Versione ricca di novità e soprattutto perpetua.

Questo primo video introduttivo (Guarda) propone una panoramica generale delle principali novità che sono decisamente interessanti. Il consiglio è quello di guardarlo magari dopo aver scorso questo articolo che vuole introdurre in maniera sommaria le principali novità.

Le due più importanti sono sicuramente la possibilità di aprire file IDML e di creare, tramite JavaScript, funzionalità e automatismi personalizzati. Fra gli script inclusi, per esempio, quello che permette di ordinare alfabeticamente più paragrafi (Sort Paragraphs.js).

Continue reading “QuarkXPress 2018 – Recensione di un designer italiano”

Mail Merge with QuarkXPress

JavaScript, QuarkXPress 20181 Comment

You need to send out a letter to your customers, which is personalized? Or you have a client that needs you to create a template to send out hundreds of personalized letters?

This task becomes time-consuming once you have several hundred addresses and you want each letter to use different content, such as text and pictures. Often, this requirement is described as mail merge.

With QuarkXPress 2018 and a sample JavaScript this is easily done:

Mail Merge using a simple JavaScript in QuarkXPress 2018

QuarkXPress 2018 offers a sample script that solves this simple mail merge problem and you are done in a few minutes. If you have more complex scenarios, feel free to modify and enhance the sample JavaScript, its code is open.

Step 1: Define you data

Define your data, either by using spreadsheet (e.g. Microsoft Excel), a database or a simple text editor.

You can use images and text. In the sample script we use one image per letter and several fields, like name, salutation, subject and greeting.

First, in the first row define the names of the fields. You can use any name for your field names, it is better for troubleshooting if you use self-explanatory names.

In our example we use:

URIRecipients NameAddress line 1Address line 2StateZIP CodeSubjectSenders NameSenders Title

Then, starting in the second row you enter the data:

URIRecipients NameAddress line 1Address line 2StateZIP CodeSubjectSenders NameSenders Title
Images\photo1.pngPeter PersonPenthouse 1Some LanePrime CityPA 12345Did you know?Marvin the MartianSVP Technology
Images\photo2.pngMatthew Manand so on…
and so on…

Of course you can also just use a text editor like Atom or TextEdit.

Now we need the data as a CSV (comma-separated values) file. You can use different separators, tabs, commas, semicolons, just make sure that you always use the same one to separate data. If you used MS Excel to create your data, you can save as CSV and specify your separator. Make sure that you do not use a separator that’s within your data.

In our example we are going to use a comma:

URI,Recipients Name,Address line 1,Address line 2,State, ZIP Code,Subject,Senders Name,Senders Title
Images\photo1.png,Peter Person,Penthouse 1,Some Lane,Prime City,PA 12345,Did you know?,Marvin the Martian,SVP Technology
Images\photo2.png,Matthew Man,Mansion 1,Some other Lane,Metro,MA 67890,Act now!,Alberto the larger Martian,SVP Technology
Images\photo3.png,Rudi Random,Residence 1,Yet Another Lane,Rural area,RA 11111,Surprising offer!,Easter the Egg,SVP Technology

Step 2: Create a template

Now in QuarkXPress 2018 create a template, so just a QuarkXPress document with your letter.

Whenever you have variable data (the address, the image) make sure that you put these boxes, text box or picture box, on a master page.

You can find the sample template (qpt file) here: https://github.com/qxpjs/Mail-merge/tree/master/mailmerge-data

Step 3: Insert placeholders

Wherever you need variable data, e.g. the personalized subject line, don’t type the data. Instead, type the field name (header name) that you used in the CSV file, surrounded by two brackets.

In our example type:

Subject: <<Subject>>

So the first word “Subject” will appear like this in your final output. The word “<<Subject>>” will be replaced by the data.

Of course you could also just use the placeholder by itself:

<<Subject>>

As this is just text, style it manually or use style sheets for the placeholder.

Step 4: Run the script

This “mail merge” script is contained with QuarkXPress 2018 as a script.

Open your “JavaScript” palette (Window menu). Navigate to to the Samples folder (in the JavaScript palette) and then to the “Automation” folder.

Double click the “Mail Merge.js” or select it and click on the Run button.

QuarkXPress will now create pages, one for each record defined in your CSV file.

Please note that QuarkXPress has a limitation of 2000 pages per layout, so if you have more records, first split the data to chunks of not more than 2000.

Step 5: Export PDF

You can now either print the layout containing all pages (or create one large PDF).

Alternatively you can create one PDF per page, by choosing the appropriate output option “Export pages as separate PDFs” in the PDF Export dialog:

Quick video showing this example

More sample JavaScripts for QuarkXPress on github

Quark has created a page on github to share more sample scripts and to encourage users to share their scripts:

https://github.com/qxpjs

 

Vertical measurement palette in QuarkXPress 2018

QuarkXPress 10, QuarkXPress 2015, QuarkXPress 2016, QuarkXPress 2017, QuarkXPress 2018, TipNo Comments

QuarkXPress 2018 introduces a vertical measurement palette (on MacOS), giving you the best of the powerful new measurement palette in QuarkXPress 2017 (which is vertical) and the text labels of the old modal dialog boxes (QuarkXPress 9).

Modal dialog box (QuarkXPress 9):

Horizontal measurement palette in QuarkXPress 2017 (MacOS) & 2018 (MacOS & Windows):

(remember that you can set it to default size – as shown – or as large size, using the cog wheel)

Vertical measurement palette in QuarkXPress 2018 (MacOS):

Shortcuts (Keyboard commands):

All three variants of course share the same shortcut keys to jump to the first input field, e.g. Command+Shift+F for the attributes shown here.

And the measurement palette variants also allow to Cancel or Preview (Apply):

  • Opt+Return is “Apply” (Preview)
  • Esc is “Cancel”
  • Return is “Ok”

More shortcut commands (shortcut keys) are listed here: http://www.quark.com/Support/Documentation/QuarkXPress/