Why Isn’t “Single Layout Mode” Sticky?

Wed, Jul 16, 2008

Bug

That’s the question I was asked. What they meant was: when they changed Quark’s preference to “Single Layout Mode” when no document was open, why didn’t it apply to all subsequently created documents?

Well, yeah. That’s what I want to know. Contrary to the way Preferences works in every other case, if you set that preference with no document open, QuarkXPress 7 will still create every new document with multiple layouts enabled. In other words, you have to do this dance for every new document.

Fortunately for We Who Have Upgraded, QuarkXPress 8 fixes that, and it also offers a “single layout mode” checkbox in the New Project dialog box when you’re creating a new project. (That checkbox is also available in QuarkXPress 7 if you’ve installed Quark’s free XPert PageSets XTension.)

By the way, here’s how to enable Single Layout mode:

Go to Preferences (on a Mac: QuarkXPress Preferences or on Windows: Edit  Preferences). In the Project area, click General and tick the Single Layout Mode checkbox. This will change that one project to Single Layout mode.

Single Layout Mode

This post was written by:

Jay Nelson is the editorial director of PlanetQuark.com, and the editor and publisher of Design Tools Monthly. He’s also the author of the training videos Quark includes in the box with QuarkXPress 7, and the QuarkXPress 7 training at Lynda.com. In addition, Jay writes for several other publications and speaks at industry events.

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2 Comments For This Post

  1. Scott Says:
    July 16th, 2008 at 10:09 am

    I have opposite results. When I started using XPress 7, I opened my preferences and selected Single Layout Mode. Since then, every new document defaults to Single Layout Mode.

    Here is a web references from Quark.com that seems to support that the preference changes the default layout mode of all new subsequent documents.

    “If you decide that single layout mode is going to be your everyday way of working, the QuarkXPress Preferences (CMD+Option+Shift+Y / Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Y) dialog has a setting that lets you set that as your default. You’ll find it in the ‘Project / General’ section of that dialog.”

  2. Jay Nelson Says:
    July 16th, 2008 at 10:57 am

    Good catch, Scott! You’ve helped me nail down what’s causing my pain. Apparently, Quark’s free XPert PageSets XTension ignores that preference setting. So, whenever I create a new project, unless I specifically click the “Single Layout Mode” checkbox in the PageSets dialog, I get a multiple-layout document.

    I thought it was QuarkXPress forgetting that setting, but it’s actually Quark’s PageSets XTension ignoring it. In some ways, that’s relieving, and in others… not so much.

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