Subtitles of the Movie

Approaching Tasks. In QuarkXPress there are generally multiple paths to any undertaking. These include keyboard equivalents, palettes, modal dialog boxes and menus or any combination of the four. Let's get started with an overview of menu organization and along the way we'll discuss the other options. All applications on both Mac and Windows platforms have menus. Using menus you can prompt palettes and modal dialog boxes and you can generally find out a keyboard equivalent to a function because it's listed to the right of the menu option. QuarkXPress 8 for Windows has 12 menus and for Mac, 13. The additional menu on the Mac is the AppleScripts menu. It's not available in a Windows environment. The other menus and functions are as follows: QuarkXPress; this is the application menu. Here you will find options specific to the application such as quitting. In the File Menu, you will perform tasks related to the handling of projects such as open, save, close but you'll also import, export and print from this menu. In the Edit Menu, you'll find the regulars such as cut, copy, paste and undo but some that might be new to you too, such as setting up style sheets, colors, hyphenation and justification and these become the basis for options within dialog boxes, other menus and palettes. In the Style menu you will apply attributes to text, paragraphs and pictures. This includes fonts, colors and much more. In the Item menu, this is the handler menu. Here you can frame, duplicate, group, lock and interact with items and paths. In the Page menu, add, delete, move and navigate pages. In the Layout menu, add, delete, and navigate layouts. Or maybe just check the properties of existing layouts. In the Table menu, interact with a table or modify its attributes. Use the View menu to find predefined options for changing the view size of your layout's pages. You'll also come here to control the view and snap qualities of grids and guides. In the Utilities menu you'll find spellchecking functions. But you'll also manage the usage of fonts, graphics and set up tracking and kerning tables. In the Window menu, you can manage the project menu or palettes. In the AppleScripts menu, Mac only, you'll find access to predefined AppleScripts. If you have these available, give these a try. They can be real time savers. This menu is a shortcut to Help Topics. If you can not find a menu option quickly, type the title in this search field and QuarkXPress 8 will provide you visual feedback of where the menu options can be found. As a beginner, this is invaluable. Generally speaking, most menu items prompt a dialog box. These are called modal dialogs boxes. Once the dialog box has appeared, you interact with it by typing in fields, clicking controls, choosing radio button or clicking to accept and dismiss the dialog box. In QuarkXPress 8 you will find that many modal dialog boxes have been replaced by palettes and if not replaced, then a shortcut has been added. Palettes are much easier to work with. They can be open at all times and minimized or collapsed to take up a very small amount of screen real estate. They are also interactive and can provide you with immediate feedback. Take for instance the new Measurements palette with its tabbed and interactive user interface. This palette's functions change depending upon what is selected upon my page. With text selected, I have text-related options. This intuitive nature of QuarkXPress is partly what makes it so easy to work with. As you likely noticed in our short tour of the menus, many of QuarkXPress 8's menu options are also accessible through keyboard equivalents. The downside is that there are so many. It's nearly impossible to remember them all. The good news is that you can access a document at Quark's website with a full listing for either the Mac or Windows user. In this video tutorial, especially as we advance through the topics, you'll see that I use keyboard equivalents often. As I do, I'll tell you what they are so that you can use them too. In short, QuarkExpress8 offers you many ways to invoke commands or apply settings. The way that is best for you may not fit someone else's workflow. The beauty is that you don't need to choose one method over another. You can mix and match. Also, if you're a long-time user you may prefer to stick with the interactive dialog boxes and have no use for the ticker controls. QuarkXPress 8 does not force you to adapt. You can continue to work in exactly the same manner and still benefit from a better user experience and a better user interface. Now that we've toured the foundation, let's have a look at the landscape.