7 Quark Express Tricks Every Copywriter
Should Know About
by Dina
Giolitto
Copywriters: whether you're in-house, small
agency or even a temp gig-hopper, chances are you're working
alongside designers who use Quark Express. So there will definitely
come a time when you're required to open up a Quark document
and make changes to the text. If you're smart, you'll realize
that the more comfortable you are in Quark, the less of a
chance you'll have of peeving your coworkers by destroying
what's already there.
Quark Express is a phenomenal program that
anybody, even a copywriter with no formal design training,
can FLY AROUND in, provided you know what you're doing. The
tools are there, all it takes is a little practice. Wouldn't
it be great to know you've got the edge over the typical non-Quark
copywriter? Following are seven Quark Express tricks that
are guaranteed to have you breezing through those copy changes
in record time.
1. Zoom In, Zoom Out.
Why You Need It:
headline creation. Most likely, your job requires you to "pop
in" several headlines and subheads on a single-page, tabloid-sized
ad. A good copywriter knows that her headline themes shall
not repeat each other, so if you're able to zoom in, type
the text, zoom out again and view the entire page, you'll
be primed for a speedy eagle-eye headline review.
How to Do It:
Zoom in: Start with a view of the whole
page. With your cursor on the Move Tool (looks like a big
asterisk), hold the right mouse button down and drag it downward
on the diagonal. This is how you "marquee" around a section
of text you want to look at up-close. What you're doing here
is simply creating a viewing window.
Zoom out: (Command-zero) Put your right
thumb on the COMMAND (or open apple) key and your index finger
on the (0) zero. (Not to be confused with the letter O, which
if you hit that would open another document.)
Put these two together: Command-zero for
a panoramic page view, marquis around on specific area. Command-zero,
marquis. Do it again. Do it one more time. Are you getting
the hang of the zoom in, zoom out? It's pretty handy to know.
2. Clicking Through Stacked Layers.
Why You Need It:
most copywriters know the sinking feeling of trying to click
a text box in Quark and being unable to "get at" the text.
What's going on here? There's probably another, transparent
text box covering the text box. Here's what to do.
How to Do It:
Put your left three fingers on SHIFT, ALT
and COMMAND (again, COMMAND is the apple key) and hold down.
While depressing these keys, use the right hand to click the
text box you're trying to get at. Repeat clicking until you
see those little "grabber corners" appear on the box you want
to change. What the "chord" does here is allow you to click
down through the layers and get to the text box to make your
edits. Be sure that you click the Text (T) tool before typing
your changes. When you're done, just click away and move on
to the next task.
3. Moving Around the Page Without Scrolling.
Why You Need It:
Sure you can scroll, but who wants to wait for the page view
to catch up with a redraw? An easier method for "scooting"
around in your Quark document follows.
How to Do It:
Click the Move tool and then "zoom out"
for a view of the entire document. (See Tip 1 if you don't
know how to do this.) With your left hand, press the COMMAND
key and keep it engaged. You'll notice that the cursor has
changed to a little "hand-grabber." Drag the mouse in any
direction, and the page moves with you. Pretty cool, eh?
4. Duplicate Text Box.
Why You Need It:
You may want to type a new headline into a designed group
of text boxes, but you're afraid to mess up the design. So
rather than destroy what the poor artist took hours to create,
you can "duplicate" their text box to get the exact text specs
you need to work with. You can then drag your duped text box
onto the pasteboard and let them know you've placed the new
headline there.
How to Do It:
Just click any text box, and press COMMAND-D.
The text box will multiply by one, and you will see an identical
text box right next to it.
Note: if you want to get fancy, double-click
the new text box, change the background color to something
flashy like yellow, and then hit F5 to "bring it to the front."
Then place your new headline on top of the old one. Be sure
to tell the designer you did this just in case he objects
or has a better solution. If it turns out he loves your method,
use the Duplicate trick in Tip 4 to dupe your new "headline
text box," cover your next headline with the new box and type
in the next headline.
5. Group and Ungroup.
Why You Need It:
Quark designers often use "double" text boxes stacked one
on top of the other to create shadowed headlines. The top
text box contains text in one color, and the box beneath it
contains text in another. The bottom text box is shifted just
a skoche. When viewed together, this looks like text with
a shadow! You will find the trouble happens when you try to
change the headline - why can't you get at the box underneath!?
The reason is because the boxes have been
grouped together. You can see two or more grouped boxes because
they'll be framed with a dotted line. When you grab for one
box, they all move together.
How to Do It:
Try this: Click the Text tool. Create a
text box and type in short headline using one of the thicker
fonts. Now make sure you've clicked the box and then use COMMAND-D
to duplicate it. You now have two identical headlines. Select
one of these, and highlight the text, then change the color
to white. Go back to the first text box and position that
one so it almost totally covers the white text (but leave
a little shadow room). If you can't get the darker-colored
box to sit on top of the white, click the darker box, and
hit the F5 key. This will "bring to front." When both boxes
are positioned the way you like them, group them as follows:
Put your left index finger on the SHIFT
KEY. With the right hand, click the headline. You will see
that one of the two boxes will show "grabber" tabs. While
keeping shift held down the entire time, click again and this
time BOTH boxes will be designated. With the left, do a COMMAND-G.
Now your two text boxes are grouped together! You can move
them wherever you'd like. To UNGROUP, simply do a COMMAND-U.
6. Show Invisibles.
Why You Need It:
Invisibles are a copywriter's best friend. If you turn yours
on, you can see every single space and every carriage return
vs. soft return. So if there's an extra accidental space or
unintended hard return, you'll be able to see it and fix it
easily!
Note: Carriage returns and soft returns
affect your text leading. If you want to set the leading for
one paragraph of text, place a hard carriage return at the
end of the first line of text and at end of the last line
where you'd like to retain the leading. Any other forced returns
within that paragraph should be "soft returns" (press SHIFT
and RETURN together).
How to Do It:
To Show Invisibles, simply do a COMMAND-I.
To shut off invisibles, do a COMMAND-I again. Easy enough!
7. Shrink or Enlarge Text Proportionately.
Why You Need It:
In Quark, you can specify each aspect of your text design
including size, font, color and leading for every letter or
line. Once you're happy with the proportional arrangement
of your text within one box, you may decide the proportion
is a-okay but the size is all wrong! To make every single
item in that text box larger or smaller, use the below technique.
How to Do It:
Put your left hand in "chord" placement
again. (Press the COMMAND-ALT-SHIFT keys together and keep
them held down). With the Text tool highlighted, grab the
corner of the text box and either pull out or in, depending
on if you want to scale the item bigger or smaller. Notice
how everything in the box gets larger or smaller yet retains
the same proportions! Now that's a handy trick.
These are just a few of many more Quark
tricks designed to make your life easier. Instead of getting
horrified looks from your coworkers, wouldn't it be great
to hear excited murmurs of "The copywriter knows Quark!" from
the design team? Of course it would. So start practicing and
with any luck you'll be a Quark Master by next week!
Copyright 2005 Dina Giolitto, Wordfeeder.com
Copywriting and Marketing. All rights reserved.
Explore our Individual Copywriting Services
Learn about our Monthly Marketing Services
Back to Copywriting Articles Page |
