X-Ray Magazine Composition Zones

Composition Zones Continued
Page 2

Next, Eric exports Nancy’s composition zones as separate QuarkXPress project files, and puts the files somewhere on the network where they’re available to both Nancy and Eric’s computers. This means Nancy can use her copy of QuarkXPress to open the exported composition zones and work on them while Eric is working on other parts of the newspaper (see figure 2). The composition zones are actual QuarkXPress documents in the same of the zone itself, not the full QuarkXPress layout.

X-Ray Magazine v3n5 Composition Zones Figure 2

Figure 2 Nancy begins filling in a story in her copy of QuarkXPress.

X-Ray Magazine v3n5 Composition Zones Figure 3 Now Eric exports the composition zone containing Hannah’s column as a QuarkXPress project file, which he emails to Hannah. When Hannah receives it, she opens it up and writes her column in it, as if it were a regular QuarkXPress project. She can see the available space exactly, so she is able to copyfit her work as she writes it, saving one or more electronic roundtrips (see figure 3).

Figure 3 Hannah opens the composition zone
she received by email and begins writing
her column in her copy of QuarkXPress.

As Eric works the ads into the paper, he can monitor the progress of the rest of the content, because Nancy’s work is displayed in the layout he’s working on (see figure 4). If he realizes that he’s placed an ad for tractor tires next to a story of a dog being run over by a tractor, he can avoid a PR disaster by swapping the ad with another.

X-Ray Magazine v3n5 Composition Zones Figure 3

Figure 4 Eric can watch Nancy’s story appear as she writes it.

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Sidebar:

Synchronization vs. Shared Content

In QuarkXPress 6, you can synchronize text in one layout with text in another layout — so if the spelling of Mr. Brzozowski's name gets corrected in one layout, it automatically gets corrected in the other layouts, too.

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synchronized text and shared content.

Synchronization is accomplished via the shared content library. The shared content library is like an invisible storage area in a project for things that you might want to use more than once. In QuarkXPress 6, the shared content library stores the master version of every chunk of synchronized text. When you update synchronized text in a layout, QuarkXPress 6 first updates the master version in the shared content library, and then uses that master version to update any other occurrences of the text.

If you're one of those folks who were smart enough to take advantage of the synchronized text feature, you'll probably notice that the synchronization palette is called the shared content palette in QuarkXPress 7. This change was made to indicate that the palette provides access to the shared content library. Also, the palette now supports a lot more than text: you can synchronize formatted text, pictures, text boxes, picture boxes, text paths, and even lines, and, of course, composition zones.

Storing something in the shared content library couldn't be easier: just select it and choose item > share, and indicate how you want to store it. Do you want the formatting? Do you want the box? Which aspects do you want synchronized? When you're finished, the whatever-it-is goes into the shared content library and appears in the shared contentpalette. Once it's there, you can simply drag it out onto the page.

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