QuarkXPress to InDesign Conversion Guide
I know it’s hard to believe for some of us, but there are still large organizations who are just now making the move to Adobe InDesign from QuarkXPress. And they are going through the same struggle that many of us went through.
Check out this e-mail I just received from a newly-hired designer:
I recently created a template in InDesign for one of our publications that is currently being produced in Quark. I based the template on the Quark template and created it EXACTLY as the Quark template was created, [mainly] to avoid problems?since that Quark template is what everyone has been using for so long. It consisted of nearly 40 separate master pages. My question is, how can I automatically link text frames from one master page to another master page? For example, I would like to link one of the text frames on the “Feature page 1” master page to a text frame in the “Feature page 2” master page. I hope my question makes sense.
Yes, it makes sense, and frustratingly, InDesign does not allow you to do this, automatically. As I said in my reply, though I understood the intentions were good, it was probably not the best idea to create an InDesign template that worked exactly like the QuarkXPress template, since they differ significantly in fundamental ways. Like how master pages work, for one.
In my reply I attached a wonderful PDF that Adobe has buried somewhere deep in its web site, which I’m pretty sure David authored, at least in part: The QuarkXPress to InDesign CS5 Conversion Guide.
It’s not really about converting QuarkXPress files to InDesign files; it’s about moving your brain from how QuarkXPress works to how Adobe InDesign works. I guess “Moving Your Brain Guide” didn’t fly with the marketing people over there.
The PDF is interactive (okay, there are buttons you can click to move from page to page), 60 pages worth of excellent information, informative even to those of us who’ve never used Quark but could still use a refresher on how to do beginning to intermediate things in InDesign, like work with styles, master pages, layers, the Links panel, and so on.
It’s a little out of date?CS5.5 is the current version, CS6 is just around the corner?but there is plenty of “permanent” fixtures in InDesign covered in this guide. Check it out, and pass the link on to anyone you know who could use it!
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I passed this on to two colleagues who are STUCK in Quarkland. Here’s hoping!
Frances I’m sure they will love you for thinking of them! Seriously anyone I’ve passed this onto has been thrilled to get the information. “Where did you FIND this? It’s PERFECT” is the most common response. :D
Will Markzware’s Q2ID work with CS6?
@JamesonT: Yes, Q2ID now works with CS6. See link here.
Help!! I”m working for a small print shop that is still using Qark 3 or 4 on a early ninties mac computer. I do most of the typsetting on a newer PC but on relatively old adobe softare cs2. The problem is that I have to transfer files from the old mac through file transfer to the PC. Most of the times I always run in some sort of issue whether its fonts or images.
What’s the best way to transfer outdated quark files to a new version of quark and possibly indesign. One of the issues is that most of the files are business cards 8 up templates that may not be set up correctly. So I need to somehow find a 8 up or 10 up Quark template.
PLEASE HELP!!
Quark 4 files can be opened with Indesign CS any version!
@carol: For QuarkXPress questions, I would suggest you check out PlanetQuark.com. One of the main mac to pc issues is that you need to ensure that the file names end with .qxd, or else QX or ID Windows can’t deal with them. ID can open most QX3.32 or QX4 files.
If it’s one-off conversions you need or if you only need a few file converting at a time like myself, Use http://www.convertquarktoindesign.com. I find it cheap and the turnaround’s usually pretty quick.
Our office is starting the process of converting over to InDesign 5.5 from QuarkXPress 10. I have tried the steps to open our old Quark files in InDesign but so far nothing is working. Any suggestions?
Amanda: Right, InDesign can only open QuarkXPress 3 and 4 files! The primary solution for converting QX10 files is Markzware’s Q2ID: https://markzware.com/products/q2id/