QuarkXPress Integration with Adobe Creative Suite 3
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Working with the Flash format

QuarkXPress 7.31 includes many web tools. To learn more, click here to read online X-Ray Magazine v5n2: It's Time for a Move: Quark Interactive Designer, or click here to read the PDF Version.

The basics of making something interactive is a three step process:

Name the QuarkXPress Item, that then becomes an interactive object.

Define what action the user is going to do, such as a click. We call this the event.

Define what the object is going to do in response. This is the action.

Here’s a simple example:

Draw a circular text box with the word beep in it and a fill of web red.

 

In the interactive palette, give it the name Beeper in the object tab.

 

Then, in the event tab of the interactive palette, set the event for Beeper to click up and then choose sounds > beep in the action pop­up menu.

Now go to layout > preview SWF and then click on the button in the flash movie that appears. It’s going to beep.

We told you it was simple!

Of course there’s a lot more to it than that. Here are just some of the things you can achieve.

• Animate items on screen.
• Create drag-able items.
• Receive text input.
• Create multi­state buttons that pop up and down, throb, and so on.
• Transition between pages like a slide show.
• Build navigation menus.
• Play QuickTime®, Flash, and other types of movies.

You can do a lot more, including the ability to write simple do this, then do this type scripts that build up to surprisingly rich interactivity. See the PDF manuals and the training videos at Quark's web sites to master QuarkXPress interactive layouts.

The final output, that you create via the file > export menu, is SWF — ready for the web. This can’t be opened by other applications but it can be placed in applications like Adobe Flash or Adobe Dreamweaver®.

Placing SWF

You can place finished Flash SWF movies in QuarkXPress web and interactive layouts, either those created by QuarkXPress itself or by other applications such as Adobe Flash. The process is quite simple. In a web layout you simply draw a picture box then use file > import picture to bring in the SWF file.

For interactive layouts, create a picture box, make that an SWF object (by naming it in the object tab of the interactive palette and giving it the object type: SWF). Now in the SWF pop-up menu, choose the SWF via choose. Afterward, right click on the picture box and then fit box to picture.

There’s an even cooler way of sharing an interactive layout with another QuarkXPress web or interactive layout. Set it up as a shared layout in layout > advanced layer properties. It will appear in the shared content palette of this project or of any other QuarkXPress layout that connects to your layout via the file > collaboration setup menu.

This means that you, or even colleagues elsewhere, can place your Flash project inside their layout while you are still working on it.

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