The XTension Article-XT for QuarkXPress supports the creation of Adobe Acrobat PDF files based on XPress documents. Using this XTension, article definitions can easily be made from within QuarkXPress. Moreover, text boxes that are linked together in QuarkXPress automatically belong to the same article when converted to a PDF file.
To create a PDF file, you usually generate a PostScript file from the XPress document and let Acrobat Distiller convert it to a PDF file. The result can be viewed on screen using the Acrobat Reader.
To make reading of PDF files on the screen more convenient, related text blocks can be put together into an article, which is presented by the Acrobat Reader piece by piece at a suitable magnification. Thus, an article may span several columns or pages without having the reader to search for the continuation at the end of a column or page.
Without Article-XT, these articles have to be defined using the Acrobat Exchange software. Since the different parts of a story cannot be included in an article automatically, this can be very tedious and time consuming if the story covers many columns and pages.
If you use Article-XT, things are completely different. Article-XT makes use of the fact that the original text boxes in the QuarkXPress document are linked together as a text chain. Article-XT automatically considers linked text boxes as an article, but of course you can also combine unlinked text boxes or even picture boxes (e.g. boxes containing tables or text as EPS files) to an article.
Article-XT exports these article definitions into QuarkXPress’ PostScript output and Acrobat Distiller includes them in the final PDF file. The result is a PDF file containing convenient article definitions for improved on-screen readability – without making use of Acrobat Exchange.
2. Installing Article-XT
To install the demo version of Article-XT, simply copy the file “Article-XT Demo” into the “XTension” subfolder of your QuarkXPress folder and relaunch QuarkXPress.
3. How to use Article-XT
In the most simple cases, all you have to do is install Article-XT. In its default settings, Article-XT handles all text boxes as articles and includes corresponding article definitions in QuarkXPress’ PostScript output. Linked text boxes are automatically exported as a single article. After converting the PostScript output to a PDF file, you can immediately use the Adobe Acrobat Reader’s Article tool to display the text.
For a more detailed control of the article definitions created by Article-XT, you can assign an article name to text or picture boxes. Of course, boxes with the same article name belong to the same article. Article-XT lets you also specify the order in which the boxes appear in the article.
Article-XT adds two menu items: the “Show Article” item in the View menu opens the Article Palette and the “Article” item in the Utilities menu is actually a submenu containing the commands “Usage”, “Settings” and “Help”. The same commands can be found in the right-hand popup menu in the Article Palette
4. The Article Palette
The Article Palette lets you assign an article name to text or picture boxes and control their position within the article. For the currently selected box, the palette shows the assigned article and the box’s position within this article. Text boxes that are linked together are viewed as a single text, thus they always belong to the same article and share the same position.
To assign an article to a box, simply enter the article name in the palette. If the article already exists, its name can be selected from the left-hand popup menu, the article menu. This menu contains two special names: “Untitled” and “No Article”. Boxes that have not been assigned an article are “Untitled”. An option in the Article-XT Settings dialog lets you specify whether article definitions should be created for untitled text boxes. A box with the name “No Article” does not belong to any article and no article information is created for it. For picture boxes, “Untitled” means the same as “No Article”.
To change the position of a box within its article, select the new position from the second popup menu, the position menu. The other boxes in the article change their positions accordingly.
Located on the right side of the Article Palette is the command menu that lets you open the Article Usage window, the Article-XT Settings dialog and the Online Help.
5. The Article Usage Window
Choose “Usage…” from the “Utilities: Article” menu or from the Article Palette's command menu to open a window that lists all text boxes in a document in page order. It shows which boxes have been assigned to an article and which are untitled. It also lists picture boxes that have been assigned.
A small mark (†) beside a page number in the “Page” column refers to a box that is located on the pasteboard near the specified page. The “Part” column shows the position of the text or box within its article. For text boxes, the “Box” column contains the position of the box within its story. The “Content” column shows the beginning of the text in a text box or the name of the image contained in a picture box. If an image has been pasted into a picture box through the clipboard, this column shows “Picture without File”.
6. The Article-XT Settings
Choose “Settings…” from the “Utilities: Article” menu or from the Article Palette's command menu to open a dialog that lets you select several settings for Article-XT.
Create Articles: Choose “Always” to create articles, no matter which printer type is selected. If “Adobe Acrobat Only” is selected, the printer type in QuarkXPress' Page Setup dialog must be set to “Acrobat Distiller” in order to create article information. If “No” is selected, no article information is created.
Untitled Text Stories: If the option “Show Warnings” is activated, Article-XT displays a warning if you print pages containing untitled text boxes. If “Create Articles” is checked, article information is created for untitled texts.
Titled Objects: If titled boxes are duplicated or copied using the clipboard, they keep their names if “Copy with Name” is selected. If an article with the same name exists in the document, the copied box is appended to the end of this article. If this option is not checked, boxes are copied without their article names.
Article Prefix: The Article Prefix precedes each article name, separated by a colon. You can set the Article Prefix to the document name or to an arbitrary, user-defined text.
7. System Requirements
Article-XT requires a Mac or PowerMac running QuarkXPress 3.32 or higher and Adobe Acrobat Distiller 2.0 or higher. The Chooser extension Acrobat PDFWriter is not supported.
8. Restrictions of the Demo Version
This demo version of Article-XT is restricted in two ways:
1. The demo version is limited to 5 frames per article.
2. Article assignments cannot be exchanged between the demo version and the full version of Article-XT.
Apart from these restrictions, the demo version offers the same functionality as the full version.
The full version is delivered with a printed user manual.
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