Planet Quark

Quark has released a free updater to QuarkXPress 7 for Mac OS X and Windows. The QuarkXPress 7.31 updater adds a few new features, fixes some bugs, and adds certification for Windows Vista and Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard — as well as for earlier versions of Windows & Mac OS X.

New Features:

• Certified for Windows Vista and Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard
• Update a single occurrence of a modified picture: you can now hold down the Shift key to update a single occurrence of a modified picture in a layout.
• New Spell Checking abilities:

1. Find and correct duplicate words (the same word twice in a row)
   (For example: The reports reports are out.)
2. Find and correct spacing errors after punctuation
   (For example: See, spot can run.Can you?)
3. Ignore Internet and file addresses when spellchecking
   (For example: http://rootcellr/mac/ctm.htm, https://, ftp://, file://, and tcbr@fastcow.org)
4. Ignore words with numbers when spellchecking
   (For example: model numbers fx25b4, fx30b4)

QuarkXPress Passport 7.3.1 now includes:

• Spell checking and hyphenation support for Norwegian (Bokmål) and Norwegian (Nynorsk) languages
• Spell checking in German, Reformed German, and Swiss German that finds and corrects capitalization errors at the beginning and within a sentence

Bugs Fixed Include:

• Text reflow: previously, text would reflow when opening projects created in earlier versions of QuarkXPress 7 that contained justified text with tracking applied or text set with right index tabs and negative tracking applied.
• Importing and outputting PDF files created by Adobe Creative Suite 3.
• Loss of alpha and spot channel information when importing PSD files created in Adobe CS3.
• Exporting to PDF when the layout contains an imported duotone EPS.
• Output of hairline or fractional point rules to non-PostScript devices.
• Windows only: recurring error dialog when opening legacy projects that used older versions of some fonts.
• Retaining the Bounding Box To Use settings for PDF import: previously, selections made in the Bounding Box To Use drop-down menu in the Import Picture dialog box (File> Import Picture> PDF Import) were not retained.

For a full list of bugs that were fixed, see
www.quark.com/products/xpress/731issuesresolved.html

And for a list of bugs that have not yet been fixed, see www.quark.com/products/xpress/731knownissues.html

I noticed that some of the outstanding bugs seem to contradict Quark’s claims of the bugs that were fixed:

• QuarkXPress may unexpectedly quit if you attempt a PDF export of a project that uses a duotone EPS file.
• If you save a duotone image as an EPS file in Adobe Photoshop, import the EPS file into QuarkXPress, and then export the layout as a PDF, the EPS picture may display black

And others are seem to be rather important:

• Mac OS 10.5 only: No warning is displayed when you save or export a file to a location where a file with the same name already exists.
• If you import an Adobe Illustrator or Adobe InDesign PDF that contains text with transparency or drop shadows, and then print the layout or export it in EPS or PDF format, QuarkXPress unexpectedly quits.
• If you import a PSD file that contains semitransparent areas, set the picture box’s background color to something other than white, and then print the layout, white may be introduced into or near the semitransparent areas in the output.
• If you import an RGB PSD image and then export the layout as a PDF, with the As Is or As Is Device Independent option selected, the image may be converted to CMYK.

Still, I have to hand it to Quark for getting this update out so quickly after Apple’s Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard was released, and with so many bug fixes and improvements. I just hope that those remaining bugs aren’t as troublesome as they appear.

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