Teach Yourself QuarkXPress : Version 4 (Teach Yourself)

Rating:
Summary: Best book I ever bought!
Review: I had always wanted to learn design but had no time or money to invest in classes etc. All I had was an iMac and "Teach yourself Quark Express". Although some reviews don't praise this book, I found it to be informative enough to learn my way around the Quark interface and start designing pages. Because large manuals overwhelmed me- not to mention my optimism about breaking into design was not that high, I settled for this cheap little book. Well I'm happy to say that within about six weeks I landed my first design job in NYC and have since mastered Quark and became very skilled in Photoshop and Illustrator. Just 11 months after reading this book I am now a very experienced and employable designer. I have taken many courses in design since then-but my gratitude goes to the author of "Teach Yourself QuarkXPress"- I never could have done it without this book. I'd like to see the great works of art from those "negative" people who suggest "Quark for Dummies". This is the only Quark book I've ever owned and believe me, anything a certified Quark instructor has ever showed me I had already learned in this book. Maybe the "Dummies" should read it again. This is a real review from a real designer.

Rating:
Summary: Good for real beginners; some flaws
Review: This is a superb resource if you have virtually no knowledge of desktop publishing whatsoever, and you wish to learn the basics of Quark Xpress. However, if you already have a basic knowledge of some other desktop publisher, and you wish to learn Quark Express fairly well so that you can get a job in the publishing industry where it is used, this book will only provide limited help.

The book does not discuss what distinguishes Quark Xpress from other publishers, and it does not provided in-depth instruction on the more difficult features of the program. Teach Yourself Quark Xpress spends a great deal of time detailing very basic actions that anyone with minimal computer literacy should already be able to perform, and it then glosses over more complicated matters (such as making indexes and table of contents for books) without providing enough trouble-shooting information and instruction.

Oddly, this book (or at least the copy I received) has several passages containing blank spots, as though the writer meant to go back and add in words, icons, and page numbers later, but forgot. Take this section, for instance, on page 104:

"Merging effects_________________ __________creates a single item where multiple items overlap. _________ creates a single item out of multiple items. _________subtracts an underlaying item from overlaying items. ______ and ________ both create a single item out of multiple items with an aperture where items overlapped."

Such passages are, for obvious reasons, quite unhelpful, and there are more than five. Such poor editing is appalling in an expensive paperback.

Unfortunately, this may be one of very few instructional books on Quark Xpress on the market. And it does provide an easy to understand overview--especially if you are not very serious about learning the program in-depth and you just want to be able to say, "Yes, I am familiar with Quark Xpress." I recommend reading the book while using the QuarkXpress demo. You can get it for free from Quark Xpress, and it will enable you to visually see most of the things the book discusses.

Rating:
Summary: Too Small Even For a Doorstop
Review: While this book does contain some information which may be useful to, say, comatose goats trying to break into a career in desktop publishing, this book provides no easy way of accessing it. The index and glossary are woefully useless and the book is disorganized and nauseatingly simplistic. If one of your coffee table's legs is a little bit too high, this book may just be perfect for you. For those of you with un-wobbly coffee tables, I suggest the Quark for dummies book. It is a crying shame that one star is the lowest possible rating allowed. I hope I have been successful in dissuading you from purchasing this book, you'll thank me later.