Using Instant PDF couldn’t be simpler — you simply select “Save as Certified PDF…” from the File menu in QuarkXPress. Instant PDF will then take care of creating your PDF, preflighting it, modifying it where necessary, and even sending it to your print provider. It’s the easiest and most foolproof way to ensure that your PDF files will comply with your print or advertisement vendors’ specifications.

The upgrade to QuarkXPress 8 costs just £279 and is available here.

• plain or rich text (RTF)
• PostScript
• PDF
• EPS
• GIF
• JPEG
• PICT
• HTML
• TIFF
• PNG
• Photoshop

Each format has many options, notably: EPS and raster formats can be scaled 10% to 1000%, in B&W, grayscale or color, and with variable transparency; Text can be exported using any filter in QuarkXPress (XPress Tags, MS Word, etc.), and you can choose the order that text boxes are processed on a page. 

Each page in a project can be exported as a separate file, and can optionally include visible page guides. Or, export a portion of a page, with optional bleed area

Exportools can also automatically send exported files to other applications for processing, such as sending PostScript to Distiller to make a PDF, or sending an EPS to Photoshop to rasterize at any size and resolution.

But that’s old news. Here’s what’s new to version 3:

• Redesigned file name composition which allows you to use from 1 to 9 file name components
•  New file name placeholders: Today’s Date, Current Time, User Name, Destination Folder, Export File Extension
•  List of recent destination folders
•  Added Document Container and Desktop as predefined destination folders
•  Preview of the full export file list, with exact file names
•  Preview of first and last file names in main window
•  Icons for destination folder, post-processing application and export files
•  New Preferences panel
•  Improved handling of duplicate file names: options to replace, skip or ask what to do
•  QuarkXPress 8-native

Exportools costs $119.

For much more information on how Exportools works, check out Cyndie Shaffstall’s enlightening article in X-Ray Magazine, at this URL: www.xraymag.com/articles/xray_v5n4_trade_tools_4.htm

You can pick up the new XPress Tags filter at Quark Labs.

Of course, the translation isn’t always perfect because of different feature sets and text flow engines, but it comes very close.

Copy Grabber lets you copy and paste an entire column of tabbed text from one location to another.

Text Grabber lets you change text attributes by dragging a marquee around the text. It’s great for changing a tabbed column of text without affecting adjoining tabbed columns. You can even repeat a change on a new selection, by pressing a keyboard shortcut.

Tab Grabber lets you move columns of tabbed text by dragging a marquee around the text, and then entering a “nudge” value, which will be added to all existing tab positions inside the marquee. You can also change the tab alignment or the fill character at the same time.

Each XTension costs $175, but are also available in a bundle for $350.

A fourth Grabber XTension, Math Grabber ($495), lets you drag a marquee around any column of numbers and perform a calculation, inserting the resulting values automatically. Use it to instantly calculate prices in foreign currencies or apply percentage discounts or markups, with specified precision.

Their new Cumulus 8 adds support for QuarkXPress 8 and QuarkXPress Server 8, as well as Quark Publishing System (QPS) version 7.4 and 8.

If your company is managing lots of assets, and you’re not already using Cumulus, you owe it to yourself to have a look.

To use it, you manually or automatically label each text box you want to use and CopyFlow exports all the text into one text file, with or without formatting. It will also export pictures, either in high resolution or screen resolution. 

When you make changes to the exported text or pictures, they can be flowed back into the layout with formatting intact.

CopyFlow Gold costs $495. For a detailed story on how it works, see X-Ray Magazine.

You can learn more about it at Badia’s website and in this article in X-Ray Magazine.

If you spend much time managing pictures in projects, BigPicture will definitely save your sanity as well as your time.

You can work with it directly in QuarkXPress, or export to EPS, GIF, JPEG, PICT, TeX, and PDF formats.

Prices range from $199 to $695, but for short-term projects, a one-month license is available for $10 to $50.

Axaio’s remarkable MadeToPrint

A batch-printing feature lets you assign a presets to a folder, then drag a QuarkXPress document into that folder to automatically output it using that preset. You can also optionally break a print job into separate pages, to print long documents that may otherwise choke or slow down the printer.

When creating a PDF, you can access Distiller’s settings from within the Print dialog box. MadeToPrint can also generate a job slug or a new name for the output file based on several variables including date & time, user, page(s), and last modification date & time.

MadeToPrint costs 349 euros.