The book normally costs $54.99, so you’ll save $27 and some change. The offer expires December 31, 2008, and is available by calling Quark at 800.676.4575 or at this link.

The booklet and Web pages highlight Quark’s longstanding ability to import and manipulate native Photoshop files, and its new ability to import native Illustrator files. It also explains how to export HTML for use in Dreamweaver, and how to use the new Flash-creation features in QuarkXPress. In addition, ito explains how to import and export PDF files, and has a final chapter for InDesign users that explains how to use QuarkXPress.

At the end is a helpful chart that compares what QuarkXPress 8 can do with files from Adobe Creative Suite, versus what InDesign CS4 can do with them. Here’s a small version of it:

In addition to the downloadable booklet, the Web page also includes a brief video that highlights Quark’s integration features, and four special pages that focus on these topics:

• QuarkXPress and Adobe Photoshop
• QuarkXPress and Adobe Illustrator
• QuarkXPress and Flash
• Other Points of Integration & Side-by-side Integration Chart

The Illustrator page includes a 20-minute video on how to use QuarkXPress to create illustrations, and the Flash page includes a 45-minute video on how to create sophisticated Flash designs in QuarkXPress.

The booklets are available in English, International English, French, German and Italian, with Spanish to come.

I did see one interface glitch on the Web page: the four links at the bottom of the page aren’t working, so use the tabs at the top to take you to those same places.

Yes, there’s a chapter for newbies that covers the basic techniques to lay out a page. But the rest focuses on the big advances that Quark has made in recent versions of QuarkXPress.

If you want to know the straghtforward, low-down scoop on the following topics, this is the book for you:

• QuarkXPress 8 New Features
• Composition Zones
• Unicode and OpenType
• Clever uses for anchored items
• Table magic
• Layer tricks
• Understanding transparency
• Working with imported Photoshop images
• Using Picture Effects
• Creating spot varnishes and coatings
• Using the pen tools
• Surprising uses for shapes
• Using Job Jackets and Job Tickets
• Understanding trapping
• Creating Flash animations
• Building Web pages, forms and buttons
• And more…

You can order the book for $54.99 at ThePowerXChange.com.

How to Think Like a Great Graphic Designer

The questions are clever, and the answers are often surprising.

Here’s an example quote from Chip Kidd:

“Q: Is there anything you dislike about being a graphic designer?

A: Software upgrades make me anxious… I keep waiting for Adobe to… bring back Photoshop 1.0… They could call it “Photoshop Classic,” and people over 40 like me would be in heaven.”

248 pages, $24.95 from Allworth Press.

And the included CD contains InDesign and QuarkXPress templates for all the grids in the book! 224 pages, $49.95 from Wiley Publishing.

The list is impressive: I’ve enjoyed and learned from several items already. Get them here.

The topics are fantastic: Metallics, Quadtones, Stochastic vs. Conventional screening, Protective Coverings, Ways to Enhance Color, Embossing and Foil Stamping, Retouching, Digital & Variable Printing, Understanding Ink, Prepress issues, and Printing Processes.

Each of these 11 topics may be viewed online, or you can request a printed booklet that explains and gives examples of each topic.

I suggest you hop on over to www.EdLivesHere.com and request your printed booklets before they run out.

Whether you’re already using QuarkXPress 8 or just want to be aware of the “you’re kidding!” features, this book is the only one I’m aware of that covers these topics in such real-world depth. It’s expected to be available in late September, but you can preorder one now. It’ll have about 500 magazine-sized pages, and priced at $54.99.

For more info or to order, go to www.thepowerxchange.com/product_9943_detailed.html.

Here’s a peek at the description and a list of topics so far:

This is not your everyday user’s guide — rather this is a unique collection of tutorials and commentary written by QuarkXPress experts, past and present, that pick up where the user’s guide leaves off.

Chapters:
The re-architecture of QuarkXPress
QuarkXPress feature presentation
Getting started with QuarkXPress 8
QuarkXPress 8 ups the ante
Projects, layouts, and shared content
Back to the future with layouts
Append - the new thumbnail drag
Real-live lock
The Zen of document production
A closer look at shared content
Composition zones: divide and conquer
QuarkXPress 8 and Unicode
Looking at ligatures
Your secret decoder ring for invisibles
I’m that type
From interpunct to interrobang
Do you know your ABCs?
Anchors away, design away
Tabula rasa for tables
Using layers in QuarkXPress
Transparency in QuarkXPress
Getting started with PSD Import
More about PSD Import
Picture Perfect
More Picture Effects
Getting edgy with QuarkXPress
Contrast control
Coating Control
Shortcutting your way through Bézier drop caps
The shape-making power of union and difference
Symmetry and alignment
Quark job jackets: preflighting swims upstream
How to stitch a jacket and give tickets for speeding
Trapping and QuarkXPress
QuarkXPress and DeviceN
Color quality in QuarkXPress
Getting your animations off the ground
It’s time for a move
Using QuarkXPress 8’s web tools
Make web-ready HTML from QuarkXPress layouts
Rollover isn’t just for Beethoven anymore
Web forms, part one
Web forms, part two
Putting QLA to work
In the trenches: XTensions
From the tech desk: Installing XTensions

Authors include:
Thomas Allen
Trevor Alyn
Kelly Kordes Anton
Stephen Beals
Joe Caponsacco
John Cruise
Jonathan Ferman
Steve Gray
Davina Hicks
Ernie Jones
Tom Kelly
Joe Root
Cyndie Shaffstall
Greg Stodghill
John Zimmerer

Each chapter is written by a different expert, on topics including setting fees, writing contracts, management structure, handling large projects, publicity, licensing, and ethical issues.

New topics in the second edition include orphan works, sales tax, retainer agreements, management of creative people, successful creative briefs, and much more.

There are many ways to learn how to use these features, including David Blatner’s Real World QuarkXPress 7.

CreativePro.com has an excerpt from the book that shows you how to synchronize and unsychronize content, and how to create and edit composition zones. It’s definitely worth a look.