Released today, the QuarkXPress 7.02 update, with its new features and bug fixes, is a must-have upgrade for users of QuarkXPress 7 and QuarkXPress 7 Passport.
License and Version Potholes Filled
Licensing and activation have been wide, deep, and troubling potholes along the road to QuarkXPress Nirvana for the last several years. In 6.0, automated product activation was arduous and worked only under certain circumstances. When it didn’t work automatically, one had to wait on hold for hours, or, worse, wait days for a call back from a Quark activation specialist. Although XPress 6.5 and increased support staffing significantly eased the activation process, it wasn’t until XPress 7 that activation became easy for the consumer.
While the activation pothole was partially filled, it was still a troublesome cavity if one tried to pack up and move with XPress. Fortunatley, that has been fixed, too. Easing the way for upgrades to new Intel-based Macs and Widows Vista computers, this update brings the ability to transfer licenses. Activated software licenses may be deactivated, transfered, and re-activated all from within the software–without having to call Quark Technical Support.
With that, the activation pothole is filled. The licensing chuckhole, however, has grown so deep and wide that, for many workflows, the route to QuarkXPress 7 was completely impassable.
Because QuarkXPress will only save to its current and immediately previous version (e.g. XPress 7 saves version 7 and 6 files; XPress 6.x saves to version 6 and 5), any workflow that involves versions older than the last requires multiple copies of XPress installed. Print and pre-press service providers most notably, but also advertising, periodical publishing, freelance design, and numerous other types of creative and publishing workflows frequently deal with QuarkXPress documents created in, and sent back to, XPress versions as far back as 4.0. It isn’t reasonable, for example, to prevent an advertising agency from saving back to QuarkXPress 5.0 when many of the agency’s clients and contractors continue to use that version–often because of their own clients and contractors.
But, that’s exactly what QuarkXPress 7 does–it prevents earlier versions of XPress from running on the same system.
Finally realizing that such a ham-fisted approach to pursuading XPress users to upgrade is actually detrimental to sales, the 7.02 update restores the common sense ability to run multiple versions of XPress on a single computer.
New Language Support
Quark worked with typographic services provider Dieckmann GmbH to expand the language capabilities of the multi-lingual version of XPress, Passport. Users of QuarkXPress 7 Passport receive with the 7.02 update spell-check and hyphenation dictionaries for Polish, Greek, Croatian, Finnish, Portuguese European, Portuguese Brazilian, Russian, Turkish, Catalan, and Slovak, and hyphenation support for Hungarian.
Many technical issues and crashes related to the presence of special, accented, or non-Roman characters in document and folder names have been addressed to the further benefit of non-English QuarkXPress Passport users (see “Outstanding Known Issues” below for related issues not yet resolved).
Bug Fixes
In this release, numerous technical issues have been fixed. Here are a few of the more important ones addressed:
- Mac OS: If more than one account exists on your computer and you install QuarkXPress, the Missing Profiles alert displays at launch and the pages are blank when you output or print files that contain a colored item.
- Mac OS and Windows: If you import a picture into a picture box with a frame, position the image so that it touches the frame, and then export the layout in PDF format with OPI Active checked (File > Export > Layout as PDF > Options button > OPI pane), the image shifts in the box in the exported PDF.
- Mac OS: If the name of a folder contains certain characters (for example, Greek characters) and you choose Utilities > Usage, each picture imported from that folder will be listed incorrectly as No Disk File in the Usage dialog box.
- Mac OS: If an imported picture includes certain characters in the file name (for example, certain Greek or Czech characters), the picture is not collected when you choose File > Collect for Output.
- Mac OS: If a folder from which you import a picture contains a period in its name, the following incorrect error message displays: “Cannot access XPress Preferences [12].”
- Windows XP: Updating a missing picture that is stored on a mapped network drive changes the file name into all-capital letters (for example, “Picture” becomes “PICTURE”).
- Windows XP: QuarkXPress quits unexpectedly when an obstruction spans a full column of hyphenated text that contains fixed leading and forces the text to wrap. This issue also occurs when the text breaks in the middle of a ligature and under similar conditions.
- Mac OS and Windows: QuarkXPress quits unexpectedly when you display a layout page that is based on a master page that contains a Drop Shadow applied to both a group and its items.
- Mac OS and Windows: QuarkXPress quits unexpectedly under different conditions when hyphenating text using justified alignment.
- Mac OS and Windows XP: Text position fails to update when you use the Tabs tab of the Measurements palette to set a new tab stop and subsequently reposition the tab stop in the ruler that displays above the text box.
- Mac OS and Windows: Tab alignment fails to update properly when tab stops on multiple lines follow soft returns (Shift-Return).
For the complete list, see the QuarkXPress 7.02 Resolved Issues page.
Outstanding Known Issues
Not fixed in the 7.02 update are the following issues:
- Mac OS and Windows: Object names and file names can use special characters that are associated with a particular language only if the operating system is set to that language. This point applies to the following languages: Croatian, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, European Portuguese, Russian, Slovak, Czech and Turkish. For example, File > Save Page as EPS fails if the name you specify contains Russian or Greek Unicode characters.
- Mac OS and Windows XP: If you import an EPS file that contains a spot color, and the name of the folder in which the EPS file is stored contains a non-Roman character, the spot color will not print.
- Mac OS: QuarkXPress cannot launch if the name of any folder in the folder path that contains the application includes non-Roman characters.
- Mac OS and Windows: You cannot share a Composition Zones item externally on a Windows volume if the Composition Zones item contains a non-Roman character.
- Windows: If the name of a folder contains certain characters (for example, Greek characters), when you choose Utilities > Usage, each picture imported from that folder will be listed incorrectly as Missing in the Usage dialog box.
- Windows: If an imported picture includes certain characters in the file name (for example, certain Greek or Czech characters), the picture is not collected when you choose File > Collect for Output.
Availability
The 7.02 update is available free of charge to all QuarkXPress 7 and QuarkXPress 7 Passport users. It is available for download from the below URLs. Updates on CD may be ordered, but apparently only via e‑mail to 702@quark.com for orders to the US and the Americas, and to 702eu@quark.com for shipment to Europe. Those outside these areas will need to order the update from their country’s authorized QuarkXPress distributor (list here).
Download the 7.02 Update:
US: http://www.quark.com/products/xpress/702update.html
UK: http://euro.quark.com/en/products/xpress/702update.html
FR: http://euro.quark.com/fr/products/xpress/702update.html
DE: http://euro.quark.com/de/products/xpress/702update.html
The discussions seem to have dried up post XPress 7.0 release. Isnt the Desktop Publishing war hot any more? :)
Oh, I don’t think it’s dried up.
Little happens in the software business in the summer because too many potential customers are worrying about vacations, staffing, etc. All the main action happens in the spring and fall.
This past summer brought a little lull in the fighting as it usually does. But that was only a brief respite while the generals planned their next campaigns. Now that we’re into the fall, the war is heating up again with big announcements from Quark and minor back-and-forth shooting between Quark and Adobe.
Spring will bring Adobe’s main assault force charging in again, against which Quark will defend with new back-and-forth and a new salvo in fall 2007.
I see one very drastic Quark/Fiery issue that no one seems to be talking about much… Quark 7 sending an illegal character in the file name during printing, causing numerous Fiery driven printers to drop (not print) a job. This is not a problem in Quark 7.0, however, it is in both 7.01 and 7.02. A representative from Ikon Office Solutions told me Fiery is working on a fix which should be available early January 2007.
My thought is that Quark should also consider a fix for this in their own software. But, I’m sure they have so much on their plate to deal with… poor Quark.
On the topic of the Quark/Fiery issue, here it is nearly April 2007 and the problem still exists. I’ve been a lifelong Quark fan, but for me this is a dealbreaker. What good is Quark to me if I can’t print my documents?? Come on Quark – this is your issue and you can’t ignore it much longer.
Quark 7 installed in G4 OSX10.4 while activating this product quark quit unexpectedly.
after that i update OSX10.4 to OSX10.4.11 the problem remains same.
what is the solution.
Amlesh,
You can call up Quark’s Technical Support for the solution. You can also register at Quark Forums for discussions regarding QuarkXPress.
Some1