Alphabet Soup is very easy to use.

1. Launch QuarkXpress 3.3 or 4.04.
2. Launch Alphabet Soup
   
   Alphabet Soup will build the font list. The font list is based on the fonts that are currently active in the system. Alphabet Soup will sort and "clean" then fonts (it cleans the font names by removing "BI", "CI" and other modifiers from the names so that the fonts show in alphabetical order).
   
   The "Default" template will be opened by Alphabet Soup.
   
   
3. Once the font list is prepared you will see the main Alphabet Soup window:
   
   
   
   The font list is where you select what font will be shown in the currently active template. The Print Sample button is what you click on to print the currently active sample. The Apply button will display the currently selected font in the active template. The Print All button will print samples of all fonts in the font list.
   
   The Settings tab
   
   
   
   Is where you select what Style Sheet of the active template to modify (Alphabet Soup works by modifying the font of selected style sheet(s)). You will not have to change the style sheet for the templates included with Alphabet Soup. This option is present so that you can change the font of style sheets of documents you've created (more on this later). The multiple samples per page option does not allow you to select a style sheet.
   
   The Template Set is where you select what group or set of templates to browse. The members of each set will be displayed in the Use this Template list. When you select a template it will immediately be opened by Alphabet Soup.
   
   Please note that you can quickly switch from one tab to another by typing command-] and command-[.

The Soup Menu

• Switch to Multiple Samples
  This menu item switches from single font viewing mode to multiple font viewing mode. Multiple fonts per page use a different template and style sheet structure.
• Refresh Font List
  Use this option to force Alphabet Soup to rebuild the font list after you've activated more fonts with ATM or Suitcase or you've deleted some font from the list and want to add them back.
• Remove Font From List
  Use this option to remove a font from the font list. This doesn't actually deactivate the font it just removes it from the list. You can use this option to narrow down the font choices available for the Print All command.
• Reset Template
  Use this option to reload the current template. This option is useful if you've modified the template by using the AutoFit option.
• AutoFit Template
  This option will check the current template for overflowing text boxes. If any are found autofit will try to adjust the font size, horizontal scale and kerning to make the text fit the box.
• Refresh Style List
  This option will refresh the Style Sheet list. This option is only available in the single font mode.
• Fit Sample Sheet in Window
  This option is like selecting "Fit in Window" in QuarkXpress. The current sample will be fit into the window.
• Print Sample
  Prints the currently active font sample sheet.
• Print Samples of All Fonts
  Prints samples of all fonts in the font list.
• Template Construction…
  Aid in creating your own templates for Alphabet Soup.

  When you select this option you will see the following dialog:

Note that all actions in this dialog will effect the front QuarkXpress document. These tools are the ones we created to make our templates.

The Setup tab is where you create the basics of a template. The basics include Style Sheets and Font Name Boxes. You select whether the template is a single font sample or a multiple font sample. Please note that QuarkXpress 3.3 will use Style Sheets to modify the font. QuarkXpress 4 will use Character Styles.

The Style Sheets that are created can be assigned to the text that you want changed when a font is selected.

The Font Name Box (or boxes in multiple font sheets) can be changed in anyway you want. Once it's created you can treat it like any other design element because the box text is assigned by the name of the box not the contents of the text (did that make sense?).

The Matrix Tab

Allows you to make a grid or matrix of text boxes with text that is assigned the style sheets you select in the Style Sheet popup. Use this option to create a matrix of letters, numbers etc.

The Name Box Tab

This option allows you to assign a Font Name Box to a box that is already in you QuarkXpress document. Select a text box and select what Font Sample name you want it to contain.

The Assign Style Tab

Allows you to assign the style in the popup to every paragraph of every selected text box.

Adding new templates to Alphabet Soup

Once your template is finished you can make if visible to Alphabet Soup by copying it in the Templates folder that is contained in the Alphabet Soup Folder.

The templates folder is where Alphabet Soup looks for templates.

Inside the templates folder you will see a "Multiple" and "Single" folder. You need to put your template into the folder that corresponds to what type it is.

Inside that folder you will find two folders. One for QuarkXpress™ 3.3 another for QuarkXpress™ 4. Be sure to put your template into the folder that corresponds to the version of QuarkXpress you want to use it with.

In this example we're creating a set called "My Templates" (by creating a new folder call "My Templates") and saving our new templates into the folder. The set "My Templates" will now appear in the set popup when Alphabet Soup is restarted.