Xpress Tags

[duncdude]

I have worked with alot of designers and setters of the years and I am amazed at how few realise that it is possible to wrap codes around text [red]BEFORE[/red] it gets into Quark to enable automatic pagination using Xpress Tags

I have been using Xpress Tags for years and it always shocks me when I see someone, for example, taking a large database - exporting the data as ASCII text - and then spending countless hours/days/weeks manually setting the pages. This is simply crazy for Directories/Catalogues, etc.

How many people out there are not making use of Xpress Tags?


Kind Regards
Duncan

 

[MyFavoriteLetterIsB]

I admit when i worked in publishing we did it manually. Didnt know about tags, and employer wasnt willing to spend any money getting any of us fully trained on the software. That 3000+ name directory would have been SO MUCH EASIER had i used tags, and would have saved the publisher tons of money in production time!

B

 

[duncdude]

thanks for your honesty MyFavoriteLetterIsB - wonder if anyone else will admit the same...


Kind Regards
Duncan

 

[skuzeme]

Duncan,

I'm VERY interested in using Quark Tags to markup text. I'm currently using Bold and Italic quark tags, but is there a list of the other tags that I can use somewhere?

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks,

John.

 

[skuzeme]

Never mind, I found a link to a PDF file in another thread that has all of the Quark Tags.

 

[itzinger]

Hi Duncan,

Perl does my job. I use it to convert and format xml-files to tagged text, calculate pagination and/or the position of graphics. An other way is to use perl, to write applescripts for generating a whole page in QuarkXPress.
As I said before, Perl does my job.

Kind Regards
otti

 

[MyFavoriteLetterIsB]

Links to info might be helpful for others.

A quick google finds this page with basic info and a pdf link to more...

http://www.xpressobar.com/tips/tags.shtml

B

 

[duncdude]

hi otti

that's wicked! can you use Perl to 'insert' graphics?

Duncan


Kind Regards
Duncan

 

[itzinger]

Hi Duncan,

first I have to tell, that I still produce with OS 9.2.2, XPress 3.3.2r5 and MacPerl 5.6.1r2. Stoneage, I know, but it works fine.

Here's some example-code
---------------------8<-------- cut ------>8---------------------
...
...

MacPerl:oAppleScript(<<END_SCRIPT_1);
tell application "XPress™"
activate
tell document 1
set view scale to fit page in window
end tell
beep 1

try
tell page 2 of document 1
make picture box at end with properties {bounds:{"18 pt", "0 mm", "261.5 pt", "175 mm"}, color:"keine"}
set image 1 of last picture box to "PicturesTP:Back's:T-BackNew.eps"
set offset of image 1 of last picture box to {"-1.5 pt", "-1pt"}
end tell
end try

END_SCRIPT_1

...
...
---------------------8<-------- cut ------>8---------------------

I don't know, whether or how it works under OS X and XPress 6.1 - I don't have it yet - but the classic environment should work without problems.

ciao,
otti