Should I get Quark 6.1 Upgrade and 6.1 Patch?

[BradyLS]

I recently re-installed Quark on a computer to eliminate a problem with it crashing when it tries to import PDFs. It would be one thing if happened on all the copies of Quark 6.0, but it's only happening to one!

A suggestion ahs been made to update to Quark 6.1 to cure the problem. I would, but, it was followed by a patch to correct some problems of the upgrader's own.

I'm leary of upgrading to a problem to fix it with a patch. But is the upgrade even worth it? It doesn't sound like it would be, but others may have a different take.

I'd like to hear opinions about the Quark 6.1 upgrade and its necessity to Quark 6.0 users.

Thank you!!!

Brady

 

[Baddoggy]

Wot can I say....yes and no...6 was stable for me...and so is 6.1a but it does bring some new problems to the match.

Says that some fonts are damaged when they arn't (see my thread)
Image ghosting...(solved! see my thread)
Missing images and text...(still a problem...if you have a windows server...see my thread) There is a workround, work on desktop and copy files back to server (like...hello...wot year is it?)

Ultimately, make your own mind up on this one...happy quarking!

BD

 

[jimoblak]

Why are you asking this question? The update read_me files seem like the updates will resolve the issue raised in your other post.

The 6.1 and 6.1a patch relate to PDF libraries and the way that Quark handles fonts. Your other post describes erratic behavior with PDF files. The reason why only a portion of your computers are affected may be due to different fonts installed on different computers.

It seems silly to question an update - - especially when the update seems to address your immediate issue.

If you cannot trust a company that has acknowledged problems with its 6.0 release and has freely offered a 6.1 update, what makes you think that the opinions in this forum are any better than Quark's?

- - picklefish - -
Why is everyone in this forum responding to me as picklefish?

 

[BradyLS]

--picklefish-- writes:

"The 6.1 and 6.1a patch relate to PDF libraries and the way that Quark handles fonts.  Your other post describes erratic behavior with PDF files.  The reason why only a portion of your computers are affected may be due to different fonts installed on different computers."

Yes. Erratic behavior on one computer in five total. (I address the topic of fonts below.) The Quark 6.0 known issues at their website offer this bullet point with no further explaination:

"Quark 6.0 will fail to import PDF version 1.5 files."

That tells me that a specific kind of PDF won't import into Quark 6.0. From my understanding, version 1.5 PDFs are PDFs created in Illustrator 6. Most other PDFs encountered are version 1.4 and 1.4, distilled from the 4.0 and 5.0 Acrobat distillers.

I'm trusting Quark when they say that their known issue realates to version 1.5 PDFs. I don't have Acrobat 6 so I have a trove of earlier version PDFs. Quark doesn't say that these won't, or even may not, import into my document. Only that the known issue deals with 1.5 PDfs.

Within the last two weeks, our office purchased Extensis Font Suitcase X1. Before I installed that program, I gathered all the fonts in the shop; created a master grouping; deleted all but the necessary system fonts from all the computers; moved any possible conflicting ones adminsiterd by the system to folders outside the Library > Fonts folders; reinstalled the master group of fonts in the 0S 9 >System Folder > Fonts_Active folder; and installed Suitcase and added the fonts in this master group to its database.

So everybody has the same font sets, to my knowledge (or dang well better), located in the same place (I've double checked) and adminsistered by the same program.

I don't know what else I can do. One user insist on keeping all fonts active on their dual processor G4 with 1GB RAM. The user with the problem Quark maintains a more reasonable font set and they have the same computer configuration. *shrug*
  
"It seems silly to question an update - - especially when the update seems to address your immediate issue."

It would seem silly. But it doesn't address my immediate issue as I've explained. It addresses a similar issue, but not the same issue, and that's why I am checking it out.

"If you cannot trust a company that has acknowledged problems with its 6.0 release and has freely offered a 6.1 update, what makes you think that the opinions in this forum are any better than Quark's?"

Because they have a 6.1 patch for their 6.1 upgrade. I don't expect product releases to be perfect. And if the problem I'm having were chronic to all 5 computers I'd probably jump in and do it. But I'd like to be sure that the 6.1 update covers my specicifc problem. So I'd like to hear from folks that have experience with the upgradea and patch before making the jump.

I suppose the weight of one user against Quark's is not a fair comparison. But if there is a body of opinion about the matter, perhaps I can gather enough new information to make a more informed decision.

Thanks for chiming in,

Brady

 

[BradyLS]

I upgraded to 10.2.8 and installed the new Quark 6.1 components into my mac. The problem that I reported in another posts persists, so I hardly know what to say on that point.

One thing I learned is that the 6.1 upgrade ad patch will not work with the Badia FixUnknown XTension. A peek into badia's site says that FixUnknown is no longer necessary with the 6.1 upgrade. However, Quark's site does not list this as one of the features of the upgrade!

They should say that, I think. It would eliminate a small shock when you run 6.1 for the first time.

Brady