Description:
Written for users with previous experience in QuarkXPress 4, QuarkXPress 4 In Depth builds upon fundamental design and layout knowledge by thoroughly exploring and detailing the software's many features and components. New users should be mindful about selecting this book over a more introductory-level text, because it dedicates only one chapter to using the basic tools of QuarkXPress 4, including image importing, file creation, and rudimentary page setup configurations. Divided into three parts, this book treats intermediate to advanced users to fairly rich discussions of QuarkXPress 4's graphics and text tools. In addition, it covers a multitude of XTensions (third-party add-ons), and QuarkImmedia, a Quark-produced multimedia document authoring tool. True to its In Depth claim, this book plumbs the farthest extent of the software's capabilities. For example, chapter 10, which focuses on the management of "Long Documents," begins with a logistics checklist that outlines crucial elements of the design process, including the delegation of authority and the overall organization of the project. Once these preliminary tasks are completed, the chapter launches into the technical procedures required for managing the document using QuarkXPress tools such as its book palette, which allows for the combination and consolidation of multiple small documents, creating lists, and constructing an index using each of the indexing tool's features. Though the book includes a special, full-color section, the images selected can often be puzzling. Why waste full-color plates on a cyan, magenta, yellow, and black layering example that appears out of context with the examples from the brochure tutorial? And why would it be necessary to include full-color screen shots of color dialog boxes rather than better visual demonstrations of the software's layout capabilities? Aside from this unnecessary attempt at adding bells and whistles, though, the book does a decent job of addressing the software's more complex attributes. --Ryan Kuykendall
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