This strategy largely preserved my chapter files, but it did not prevent the special files from becoming corrupt. QuarkXPress crashes so frequently that I learned to save my work every 5 or 10 seconds and to keep open only the chapters I was working on. In QuarkXPress, a book requires a set of separate files for each chapter and section, plus two special files that keep track of the book’s contents and pagination.
You would not want to read the full litany of the faults I found-even assuming I could remember them all-but here are a few problems that give a sense of what I put up with. What a mistake! QuarkXPress is the most bug-ridden application I have used in 36 years of working with the Mac. I found InDesign more confusing, and I dislike Adobe-Creative Cloud requires a pricey subscription and fills your drive with files-so I bought a copy of QuarkXPress. Both seemed to have comparable features and limitations. The only heavy-duty choices at the time were QuarkXPress and Adobe InDesign. If you ever need a page layout application, do not buy QuarkXPress.Įighteen months ago, I needed to lay out an illustrated book. In the end, after much troubleshooting and experimentation, the best I could recommend was that he cut his losses and switch to InDesign, a luxury that he couldn’t afford given publishing deadlines. I can thus say, from personal experience, that what Charles relates here is only the tip of the iceberg of what he went through.
Although I don’t know QuarkXPress, I’ve laid out many books in Adobe InDesign and have years of experience working with PDF ebooks. Every day when I came back from the conference, I found Charles at his Mac, swearing at the latest problem created by QuarkXPress. At that point, Charles was in the final throes of laying out their book, Pretty Ugly: Why we like some songs, faces, foods, plays, pictures, poems, etc., and dislike others. Unless You Are a Masochist, Do Not Buy QuarkXPressĮditor’s Note: In May 2019, I stayed with Charles Maurer and his wife Daphne for a few days while attending the Collision conference in Toronto. #1580: iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro, Apple Watch Series 7, redesigned iPad mini, and upgraded iPad, plus iOS 15, iPadOS 15, watchOS 8, and tvOS 15.smart displays, iOS 12.5.5 and Catalina security update, iPhone 13 problem with Apple Watch unlocking #1581: New Safari 15 features, Center Stage vs.#1582: iOS 15.0.1 and iPadOS 15.0.1, Apple Watch Series 7 dates, cautionary tale about backups, using Live Text and Safari extensions.#1583: Ten years without Steve Jobs, iOS 15.0.2, Exif and Visual Lookup in Photos, iPadOS 15 multitasking, easier 2FA codes.#1584: New MacBook Pros, new AirPods and HomePod mini colors, Monterey release date, notification grouping tip, Find My story.