Running Heads in Quark 4

[pyritz]

I am hoping to find a solution to a little nuisance of a problem that keeps coming up.

I frequently work on books set up in Quark 4 that have running heads which include the chapter title. I inevitably end up tweaking the master pages, and creating a few new master pages for short spreads and the like.

Usually a generic running head has been set up on the master page ("Chapter Title") that is replaced with the correct chapter title on the book's pages. My frustration is that whenever I have to apply a new master page to a page (or even reapply a newly-tweaked master page), either the running head is replaced by "Chapter Title" and I have to paste in the correct chapter title on each page again, or else I get a second textbox (which says "Chapter Title") on top of the first (which has the correct chapter title already entered.

This is probably a longshot, but does anyone know of a way to automate adding the correct chapter title (sort of like the automatic page # character, which you just have to put once on the master page, and it automatically fills in the correct page number on each page), without creating a seperate master page (or set of master pages) for each chapter?

We are switching to InDesign soon. I'm assuming this will be easier to do in InDesign (most things are). So while I'm asking, does anyone know how this could be accomplished in InDesign.
Thanks!

---/---
Nathan Pyritz

http://www.pyritzdesign.com

 

[apepp]

...have you investigated the book feature in quark, this has been developed to use individual quark docs together, each quark doc would represent a chapter...

...this feature is similar to that of how indesign deals with chapters...

Andrew

 

[apepp]

...doing a whole book of differing chapters in one quark file is causing you the problems here, look into the book feature as i mention above, the help files that accompany quark will direct you...

...quark 4 stepped up its features for managing long documents by adding the ability to generate automatically formatted hierarchical lists, such as a table of contents. You can also combine multiple documents into a "book" file, which includes style sheet and color information, to achieve consistent formatting...

...indesign isn't necessarily needed to achieve what you need in some cases...

Andrew

 

[pyritz]

Thanks, but I don't think making the file into a book would help at this point. I would still have to make a different set of master pages for each chapter (all 36 of them, plus front- and back-matter), but I would have to set them up in 36+ different files.

Once they get to me, the files are already set up, so I would have to split the file into several chunks. Plus, it would be much more difficult working with 36+ files than it is just working on one. The book feature is perhaps useful on some projects (particularly if you have a whole team of people needing to work on different chapters of the book at the same time), but not for this project.

What I really need is a way to somehow invisibly "tag" sections of the file with their chapter names (pgs.1-8="Chapter 1: The Beginning"; pgs.9-36="Chapter 2: The Thing That Happens Next"; etc.) and then place a <ChapNameHere> in the running head textbox on the Master Page. Then I could use the same Master Pages throughout the book, and Quark/InDesign would plug in the appropriate ChapterTitle on each page.

Most likely, this is not possible, at least in Quark (unless there's some secret plug-in I don't know about). I guess I'm just thinking up my dream layout software. Perhaps the folks at Quark/Adobe will stumble across this and it will inspire them...

---/---
Nathan Pyritz

http://www.pyritzdesign.com

 

[apepp]

...yes, they certainly are setting them up awkwardly indeed, the source users, if possible need to be informed of how to set up books in dtp applications for easier manipulation...

...it's all in the planning, but as this project is alive and kicking, your found cleaning up multiple chapters in one quark document using multiple master pages, that must be a very long and hefty sized quark file if graphics and the like are used...

...logically it is easier to use multiple quark docs for multiple chapters, this is the whole idea of the book feature and synchronization of style sheets, colours etc. Managing them is easy in the book dialogue box. Indesign is very similar in this feature (with a few extra bells and whistles)...

...if they supplied you with an indesign file with multiple chapters in one doc, you are likely to encounter similar problems...

...the book features in both programs are beneficial on all projects that are defined as books...

...multiple chapter, single documents are largely counter productive and less efficient as you are discovering...

...i feel for you on this one as it has snowballed and become more complicated than it needs to be...

Andrew