Opening QuarkXPress Documents

The Open command (File ‚ Open, or z +O or Ctrl+O) lets you select and open documents and templates saved in QuarkXPress versions 3.3 through 4.11 on Macintosh or Windows. (You can't open libraries or books, though, nor version 5 or 6 files.) All the text, graphics, items, master pages, style sheets, and more in the QuarkXPress document are converted to their InDesign equivalents. If the document contains items, content, or formatting that can't be converted, an alert notifies you of the issues. Once the document is converted, it displays as a new, untitled document.

Cross-Reference ‚  

See Chapter 4 for complete information about opening files

Now that you know what InDesign is supposed to do, take a look at how well it actually does it. Yes, you can open QuarkXPress documents, save them as InDesign documents, and continue working with them. But the documents don't convert perfectly : You're likely to lose some formatting because InDesign doesn't have equivalent formatting or its options work differently. In general, you can expect to use a QuarkXPress document as a starting point for a design ‚ usually with a little repair work ‚ but you should not expect to simply open a QuarkXPress document and have it look and print exactly the same way.

Tip ‚  

After realizing which QuarkXPress features are not supported or converted well, and considering how your own QuarkXPress documents are created, you can decide on a document-by-document basis whether conversion is worth the effort. In some cases, it might be easier to simply reconstruct a document, while in other cases you might be able to start working almost immediately.

When you convert QuarkXPress documents to InDesign, you can expect the following:

• Master pages are converted, including all items, content, and guides.

• All line and frame styles are converted to dashed or plain strokes.

• Text boxes are converted to text frames; picture boxes are converted to graphics frames .

• Text paths are converted.

• All paragraph and character style sheets are converted to InDesign styles.

• Incremental auto leading (such as +4, which adds 4 points to the largest font size on the line) is converted to InDesign's standard auto leading.

• The Next Column (keypad Enter) or Next Box (Shift+keypad Enter) characters (which you use to bump text to the next column or next text box rather than resizing the box) are retained.

• The Bold and Italic type styles are converted to the appropriate typeface (if available), and Underline, Strike Thru, Superscript, Subscript, All Caps, and Small Caps are converted. Superior, Word Underline, Outline, and Shadow revert to plain text.

• Index tags are not maintained , and you may have difficulty opening chapters of a book.

• If a picture is missing or modified in QuarkXPress, it won't display in the InDesign document. If you want to retain the picture, you'll need to update the links in QuarkXPress (Utilities ‚ Usage ‚ Pictures) before converting it.

• Pasted (embedded) pictures, pictures imported using OLE or Publish and Subscribe, and pictures created with third-party XTensions will not convert.

• The customizable dashes in QuarkXPress are converted to solid and dashed lines ‚ note that stripes do convert properly.

• Clipping paths created in QuarkXPress or imported with an image into QuarkXPress are not converted, so the image's display will change.

• The Same as Clipping Runaround feature in QuarkXPress leaves a runaround shape based on the clipping path in InDesign ‚ but if you've resized the image in QuarkXPress, the runaround path stays at 100 percent in InDesign.

• Items for which Suppress Printout is checked are placed on a separate layer called ""Nonprinting layer." To view these objects in InDesign, view the layer.

• If a group contains an item for which Suppress Printout is checked, all the items are ungrouped and the suppressed items are placed on the nonprinting layer.

• ICC-compliant color profiles (used in QuarkXPress 4.0 and greater) are retained; other profiles (the EfiColor profiles used in QuarkXPress 3.3x) are not retained.

• Colors in QuarkXPress 3.3x documents are converted to InDesign swatches according to their CMYK values (except for HSB colors, which are converted to RGB swatches).

• Colors in QuarkXPress 4.x documents are converted to InDesign swatches according to their RGB values (except for HSB and LAB colors, which are converted to RGB swatches). Hexachrome colors are not converted.

• Blends are converted to linear or circular blends.