She’ll explain what XML is and how you can use it, as well as ways to monetize and distribute your content. Since XML support is built into QuarkXPress and other publishing tools, this could be 90 minutes well spent…

I also had the opportunity to discuss this dramatic turn of events in the Creative Pro • Design Tools Weekly podcast of October 27th.

If you’re interested in learning more about using QuarkXPress, QuarkCopyDesk, InDesign and InCopy together in a single workflow, have a listen!

You may want to use it for reference when you or your boss is thinking of upgrading. It can also be helpful when attempting to communicate with someone who doesn’t know what the newer versions of QuarkXPress can do — just point them to this page.

www.govote.org is an easy Web page that tells you where to vote, based on your address. It even displays a Google map of your voting location, and a list of acceptable methods of identification.

Use it for yourself. Send it to your friends. Believe it or not, one of the most common reasons people give for not voting is that they didn’t know where to vote…

Although it only shows the first spread of each document, that’s usually enough to identify a project. And while the preview is limited to the resolution of the preview that QuarkXPress builds into its files, Quark dramatically improved those previews in QuarkXPress 7.31 and above.

Make sure to try switching your Finder window to Cover Flow view as you see above (View> as Cover Flow or Command-4) — it’s just so cool! 

And here’s a power user tip: create a Smart Folder that will show all your QuarkXPress documents in one window! (File> New Smart Folder or Command-Option-N) The trick is to set the “Kind” as “Other” and then type in “QuarkXPress project”, just as you see above. 

You can also limit the Smart Folder to showing only the QuarkXPress documents located in a particular folder or volume, or that were last created or saved during a certain time frame, or that have a particular word in their file name. 

Quark’s Quick Look filter even adds new criteria to the Smart Folder options: QuarkXPress Layout Names and QuarkXPress Style Sheets.

If you find a combination of Smart Folder criteria that seem like they’d be useful later on, you can save the Smart Folder and it will update in real time as the content of your Mac changes. Just click the Save button and give it a location.

The newest version of Quark’s Quick Look filter supports documents saved from QuarkXPress 8 as well as from earlier versions.

You can pick it up at the Quark Labs website.

Caveat: I noticed that a few of my documents don’t have previews, but my QuarkXPress documents go back to version 3, some of them have custom icons created by long-lost third-party XTensions, and some were created by beta versions of QuarkXPress. You’ll probably have better luck.

Quark Now Supports Adobe InDesign and InCopy in Their Quark Publishing System

What does this mean for design firms, publishers and corporations?

• You can use either page layout tool to build projects, or portions of projects, and then combine them.
• You can use whichever page layout tool your client requires, and still be able to use the same content in either application.
• Just like QuarkXPress users, InDesign and InCopy users can collaborate simultaneously on the same layout, at the component level — story, photo & caption, etc.
• One workflow system shows the status of ALL your projects.
• One repository for all your assets, available to users of any application.

Who’s going to use it?

I can imagine publishers having staff members using InDesign to design one part of a project or campaign (book jacket, poster, magazine cover, etc.) while others work on the inside pages in QuarkXPress. I can also imagine laying out some publications in InDesign, others in QuarkXPress, while sharing all the content in real time.

Or not… only time will tell.

Other input options:

There are several other ways to input content, including Adobe InCopy, QuarkCopyDesk, a Web browser, and Microsoft Word. Microsoft Word users can even author structured XML in a process similar to using Style Sheets, just by adding Quark’s Xpress Author plug-in.

For lots more information:

Please see our additional stories on QPS:

• The Faces of Quark: Joshua Duhl on Dynamic Publishing
• Quark Announces Version 8 of Everything: Quark Publishing System 8, QuarkCopyDesk8 and QuarkXPress Server 8
• Quark Publishing System 7.4 Adds Support for Leopard, Safari, LDAP, Full Text Search, Russian and Polish
• Announced today: Quark Dynamic Publishing Solution — What is it?
• Quark Continues to Quietly Add QPS Customers
• Quark Partners with Alfresco
• Report Analyses Quark Publishing System 7, Smart Connection Enterprise, and K4
• Quark Releases Quark Publishing System 7

And of course, Quark’s QPS website.

Availability

Quark announced that they’ll have a pre-release program for the QPS XTensions for Adobe InDesign in “fall 2008″. That would mean sometime before December 21.

In addition, QPS 8 will be released in the fall, along with QuarkCopyDesk 8. These new versions take on all the new features of QuarkXPress 8, in addition to the new features added when QPS received a complete rewrite for version 7.

The InDesign XTensions at first will work only with QPS 8, but Quark says they’ll also have it for QPS 7.

The InDesign XTensions will be cross-platform (Mac and Windows), with the Mac version arriving first. Quark says the Windows version will arrive about three months later.

InDesign and InCopy CS3 will be supported first, then CS4.

The QPS server software will run on both Windows 2008 Server and Mac OS X 10.5.

(To hear me discuss the importance of this announcement, check out the October 27th Creative Pro - Design Tools Weekly podcast.)

Quark is taking the hint, and is now offering free live Webinars that focus on how easy it is to create interactive Flash projects in QuarkXPress. Today they announced two Webinars, on October 21 and 23. Each is an hour long.

To sign up, click here for Oct 21, or here for Oct 23.

Here’s how Quark describes the Webinar:

—————————————
You’d love to use Flash®  – but you’re not a programmer, so what do you do? Create Flash design directly in QuarkXPress 8®  no programming required. You can easily add animation, video and sounds to your projects in QuarkXPress 8. 

In one hour you’ll learn to:

• Use the built-in Flash authoring tools in QuarkXPress 8
• Repurpose content to design across multiple channels
• Leverage the rich design features of QuarkXPress 8 in your Flash designs, including transparencies, image manipulations efforts and more
• Use QuarkXPress 8 to convert QuarkXPress assets into Flash, for layouts produced in QuarkXPress as far back as QuarkXPress v3.3

Our presenter and expert is Andrew “Drew” Bartlett, Sr. Technical Product Analyst for QuarkXPress, specializing in Interactive and Web. Drew has been with Quark since April of 2005, prior to that he was a Product Manager and Product Specialist for DexMedia where he built web sites and developed interactive campaigns for local advertisers.

Don’t miss your opportunity to create Flash - no programming required!

—————————————

In case you missed it, here’s a quick introduction to Quark’s Flash authoring environment, by Jeff Gamet: “Easy Flash from QuarkXPress“.

I think this is a clever stealth move by Quark: since almost everyone has a copy of QuarkXPress somewhere in their office, and the upgrade to version 8 costs just $299 from any version, then $299 buys you an intuitive Flash authoring tool that you already (mostly) know how to use.

Who would have thought that QuarkXPress would become the preferred Flash authoring tool for designers?

According to the report, blue and purple lead the top 10 hues, combined with sophisticated neutrals and a spectrum of greens.

The Pantone colors are:

• 18-4043 Palace Blue
• 15-3817 Lavender
• 14-0754 Super Lemon
• 15-1626 Salmon Rose
• 18-2328 Fuchsia Red
• 14-1307 Rose Dust
• 16-5804 Slate Gray
• 16-6339 Vibrant Green
• 16-0435 Dark Citron
• 14-5714 Lucite Green

And this is coming from someone who switched to InDesign many years ago and never looked back. Believe it or not, he calls it Easier, Faster and Fun.

Read his entire story, titled “QuarkXPress 8 Full of Surprises“

The session was so lively, and went so long, that Chuck divided it into two episodes. At the beginning of the second half, Chuck asked me to compare QuarkXPress with CS4, and so… I did.

I hope you’ll find my observations about the products, the industry, and our shared history interesting enough to invest your time.

Part 1 is named episode #823 and can be heard here.
Part 2 is episode #824, available here.