Anyone using Quark 6? (1 Viewer)

[Pamela]

Well, I finally got my upgrade for Quark 6. I was very excited, as I could now dump OS 9. NOT!!!! I installed it on my desktop computer and all was fine. Then I discovered it was only backward compatible with version 5. Not happy about that. Then, I installed it on my laptop. Well, leave it to good old Quark. It won't work on my laptop, because Quark saw fit to allow activation on only one computer.

I checked the EULA on my other software (Adobe, Microsoft...) and they all allow their software to be installed on the desktop computer and a portable computer, but the software can not run concurrently. Seems fair to me. Not Quark, though! I was so mad, I was spitting tacks. There is no way I'm paying another $900 to put it on my laptop.

I emailed them regarding this issue and they let me know that they are working on the licensing for laptops and will have a program in 90 days. There will be a fee, of course (this is Quark, after all).

I haven't even gotten around to finding all of the bugs I've been reading about. Haven't really played around in it yet. I've been too darn mad! I'm seriously considering switching to Indesign.

Anyone else been using Quark 6? Impressions? Do you see it as an improvement?

 

[Tony Aguila]

If you have been using version 5 you will hardly notice any change, although it seems faster and more responsive... typical OS X vs. OS 9 difference.

In my particular case, an issue with image rotation in printing to an imagesetter has been fixed. They added layers, JAWS RIP printing (whatever that is... I can't find any documentation on it).

I was expecting palettes that snap to the monitor edges and to each other, much like Photoshop and Illustrator, but no luck. If you work on printing color separations, it is more savvy with detecting and suppressing blank color plates, although not foolproof.

I experienced some problems saving files to my OS X Server, probably due to issues with permissions. If you work with very long documents, don't even consider InDesign. I tried doing a 12-page newsletter with ID and it was like walking in mud. Some of my projects involve documents that go over 350 pages.

Of course, being OS X native, there are no more video refresh problems. To their credit, I have not experienced any feature that broke or doesn't work as well as the previous versions. But if you have to provide files to version 4 or earlier users, you will have to save down to 5, open it in Quark 5 and save down to 4 (or 3).

If you're primarily working in Jaguar, version 6 is the way to go. All gain, nothing to lose, except the cost of the upgrade.

A couple of quick additions... I'm starting to appreciate how fast this version loads. About three times faster than version 5. Approximately 6 seconds on my Dual 1GHz Quicksilver.

Layouts: One document can consist of any number of layouts, which can be different size pages. Cool.