CreativePro Forum

Return to Member Forum

• Author
  Posts
• • January 30, 2010 at 12:30 pm #54721
    John McKercher

    Member

    I'm just wondering if anyone has any real experience with the Q2ID plugin. I have to deal with a lot of old Quark files (version 4 mostly), preparing them for reprints and I'm sick and tired of using Quark 7. Even though I cut my teeth on Quark I've been using InDesign for so long I've forgotten all the keyboard shortcuts for Quark. I was thinking of using the plugin for mostly covers so they would be easy to proof and they should be fairly easy to convert.

    Does this plugin actually work as well as they claim and has anyone used it on long documents (say a 200 page book with sidebars and graphics)? I'm at the point that shelling the money out for the plugin will greatly relieve my stress levels.

  • January 31, 2010 at 3:08 pm #54729
    Colin Flashman

    Member

    it works really well PROVIDED that the quark file being opened was collected for output properly (if there are missing links or fonts, the conversion will be bad). are some issues with text boxes having unwanted inset values or text wrap values but a while ago a script called qxdcleaner.js was available which was run AFTER using the Q2ID plug-in which fixed a lot of that. i've tried looking for it to put a link in but it looks like its not on the author's website anymore (https://www.jursz.com).

  • February 1, 2010 at 4:33 am #54732
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    I believe that Markzware can convert a file for you for a price. Not sure how much they charge for the service, but if you wanted to test it you could always email them and ask them?

    I've never used the plugin myself, but I haven't heard anything negative about it.

  • February 1, 2010 at 8:18 am #54735
    John McKercher

    Member

    Thanks for the feedback Colin. I sort of thought there might be odd little bits and pieces that might need attention, that't why I thought using it for cover files would work fine. For the book text files it's probably too much of a hassle if you have to go through and check all the line endings. Mind you, whenever I take a Quark 4 file and convert it to version 7 I always pass it along with the warning that it's best to check all line endings anyways.

    John

  • February 1, 2010 at 5:31 pm #54749
    Dwayne Harris

    Member

    I use the Q2ID several times a month. But it's definitely not perfect (and it never claims to be).

    One is the style sheets and how they come across. If a paragraph style sheet is based on another, come through that way, but without any changes that may have been to it in Quark. For example, my TX style sheet is regular text with a 1p6 paragraph indent. My TXF is based upon that but was changed to no indent. The file converts okay and the paragraphs stay the same so far as indents or no indents, but with a + next to it. If you look at the TXF style sheet it has the 1p6 indent. It's okay if you're just converting a file, but if you flow in new type with those style sheets the TXF will come in indented. One needs to definitely fix all the style sheets after conversion.

    Paragraph style sheet kerning is messed up. Although it will convert and the style sheets may say “metric” kerning, if you go into the actual paragraphs they are all 0 kerning. You need to go to each paragraph style and change it to 0 and then change it to metric (or optical if you wish). Then it will take hold.

    Master pages come through okay, but because of the way Quark does things, the running heads and folios can be touched on all the actual pages. If you make a change to the master only (i.e., change wording of running head) on the master, it won't effect the actual pages in the book. You need to kill all the running heads individually then reapply the master.

    Also–it seems Quark and InDesign measure ascenders a bit differently. I've found that the first baseline of text of a converted document sets down about a point further than it did in Quark.

    Oh–you'll probably need to readjust the head margin so the text box starts in the right place. A lot of Quark users set the margin for the top of the running head instead top of text.

    Note that when the files convert “single line composer” is automatic, and if you want “paragraph composer,” you will need to change that.

    H&Js definitely come thorough as what Quark file was, but you know that. All the line breaks will change.

    Art sizes: They won't be exact. Instead of say 88 percent, they may come in 86.984038403 or some weird number like that. I've never had any come in at the right size (even though they were linked/updated in the Quark file).

    Sidebars and the like seem to come in okay. I think I had problems with oval boxes, though.

    And please don't get me wrong, this plug-in works great. But if the majority of the files that need to be converted are Q4, I'd say to just open them directly through InDesign. You will get the same results as the plug-in. (I've actually found that the files convert better if you open Q4 files directly in ID). But if you have Quark 6, 7, or 8, files than it's worth the money to buy it just in cost savings of having to downsave all the way to Quark 4 (one version at a time) and having to boot into OS9 and stuff.

    It's worth the money, but it's just a conversion tool. You still need to do a lot of work no matter how you convert those files. If it's just converting and no new set or new material, then mainly you have tweaking to do. But the more complicated the job the longer it's gonna take to tweak. If your clients are super-picky, then it could be a hassle. If they're not so picky, convert it to ID (with or without the plug-in) and you should be okay.

    I do suggest that when you convert the file that you export is an .inx file and then open that. It will clean up any possible corruption or problems that may be lurking in that Quark file.

    And to the makers of Q2ID–I hope I didn't come across as bashing your product. I was just giving my honest opinion.

    And for those who've ever had corrupt InDesign files. I've used ID2Q and opened corrupt ID files in Quark. I then save it, and bring into InDesign via Q2ID. Works like a charm.

    {EDIT: I apologize for the length and if I was ranting}

    doc

  • February 2, 2010 at 7:46 am #54758
    John McKercher

    Member

    Many thanks, Doc, for the detailed reply. Your post summarizes what I thought it would be like – it works really well but it certainly is not perfect. I admit that I did not realize you could open a Q4 document with InDesign. I might try that first. Certainly with the next bunch of covers I get, if the majority are Quark files, I'm going to give this thing a try.

    Thanks for all the help, now back to work.

    John

  • February 2, 2010 at 5:46 pm #54771
    Dwayne Harris

    Member

    John M–I'm glad I was helpful. Good luck.

  • February 5, 2010 at 7:21 am #54814
    Jennie

    Member

    Doc said…”I do suggest that when you convert the file that you export is an .inx file and then open that. It will clean up any possible corruption or problems that may be lurking in that Quark file.”

    That is the soundest advice I've heard and wish I had not learned it the hard way.

    I use Q2ID frequently and can't imagine being without it. Consider using it for all old Quark files. It saves keyboarding time and you don't insert typo's.

    As you have heard before, Q2ID is not perfect. It is pretty darned good though!

    Say goodbye to Quark and smile!

  • February 5, 2010 at 8:09 am #54816
    Stacy Vitallo

    Member

    John M said:

    I'm just wondering if anyone has any real experience with the Q2ID plugin. I have to deal with a lot of old Quark files (version 4 mostly), preparing them for reprints and I'm sick and tired of using Quark 7. Even though I cut my teeth on Quark I've been using InDesign for so long I've forgotten all the keyboard shortcuts for Quark. I was thinking of using the plugin for mostly covers so they would be easy to proof and they should be fairly easy to convert.

    Does this plugin actually work as well as they claim and has anyone used it on long documents (say a 200 page book with sidebars and graphics)? I'm at the point that shelling the money out for the plugin will greatly relieve my stress levels.

    ---

    I have used it multiple times and as the others have said, it's got issues, but it does work.

    I've noticed that all text frames have an indent and a text wrap setting. That's about the only real annoying thing…

    Since I don't have the older versions of Quark available, it's a real life saver!

  • February 5, 2010 at 5:43 pm #54828
    Dwayne Harris

    Member

    Jennie–I’m glad you liked the advice. I learned it the hard way once and that’s when I decided to export as an .inx file immediately after converting it.

    svitallo–I’m thinking that the text boxes are coming across with the text inset and runaround because the original Quark file was that way.

    I believe that Quark’s default was the runaround on and a text inset of 1 point. I remember having to set up preferences (with no file open) and modifying all my text and picture boxes to the settings I wanted.

    But we’d get files from another typesetting house and they had all that stuff at default :(

    Thankfully, when such files come across with those insets or text wraps, InDesign lets you easily search and replace them with the settings you want.

    I’ll look around as I’ll bet there’s a script out there that will be helpful to you.

• Author
  Posts