Underscores with answers

[pobajo]

We have documents that will have answers with underscores, i.e. "We are using version __6.1___ of Quark." Of course "6.1" should be underscored as well. Our copy editing provides these files in MS Word, and they use the shift and Underscore key (above hyphen) on the keyboard, and type in the word. They can do it and have the entire word underlined with excess on both sides of the word. It comes in fine when we bring it into Quark and prints fine as well. But, sometimes we need to do it from scratch right in Quark. I don't know of anything in Quark 4 that does this. In the past, we used the command-u and left a few blank spaces on each side of the "answer". Surely there is a way what Word can do we can do in Quark, right?

So, the first question is can we do this in Quark 6 from scratch by using the underscore key, not the underline keyboard combination. And do know that using rules or tabs is out of the question because the answers will appear all over the place and sometimes 2 or more on a line—that would be too time-consuming. I haven't gotten upgraded to Quark 6 yet, so cannot investigate.

Our second dilema is that we then need to make the answer another color while keeping the underscore black.

We will all be using Quark6 by the time this project comes to us.

If Quark doesn't have anything, perhaps an extension would help.

On another issue, is there a highlighting feature in Quark 6 that we can make a text selection and apply hightlighting, then perhaps even making a character style for it?

Thanks much in advance.

 

[dmacster]

You could set the type using a rule below to one color, the text to another.

 

[pobajo]

Yes, I know this, but there are 100s of situations and each would have to be done separately and in addition, often 2 or 3 on each line, and you can only set a single rule, not 3 times on one line.

thanks anyway.

 

[ChokingMyTrap]

With the TypeTricks Xtension you can do custom underlines with whatever colour/stroke/shade/offset so you could have White text and a Black underline though I cant see a way of automating the use of it so you dont have to manually go through and changing everything which is a major pain in the arse. Thought XPert Find and replace would do it but it cant, and there is no shortcut for using the custom underlines, maybe an applescript could be made to replace ____ underscores with custom underlines?

If you can find a way to automate custom underlines or to use them easier then going to the menus then your good..

Cheers

 

[duncdude]

i'm probably not quite understanding what you are trying to achieve!?
how about a character-level (as opposed to a paragraph-level) style-sheet with word underlining - and underscores either side... they match up perfectly?

Cheers
Duncan


Kind Regards
Duncan

 

[pobajo]

Thanks for all your responses. Yes, word underlining would work with character styles, but we need the underline and the type different colors. Can do with a rule, but if there are multiple answers on a line, not possible.

Anyhow, we've gone back to the editors and said we cannot do this in Quark and that they have to come up with another design for what they want to accomplish.

Easier for us anyway!

 

[MarcusStringer]

I don't think there is a way to do this once the damage has been done, so to speek, easier while you are creating them, you could try QXtools, which has an outstanding search and replace for rules etc.

By the way, you would most likely be finished by now.

Marcus

http://www.midlandtypesetters.com.au

 

[pobajo]

thanks Marcus.

I'll certainly look into QXTools for the knowledge anyway, for any future projects!