Composition Zones Continued
Page 4

With the Composition Zone Tool

The second way to create a composition zone is to draw it with the composition zone tool (see figure 7). This is useful if you want to give somebody a column or half of a page to work with, and you don’t care how they fill that space.

Figure 7 A composition zone drawn with the composition zone tool.

From a whole Layout

The third way to create a composition zone is to convert an entire layout into a composition zone. The resulting composition zone can contain an entire page, or even a series of pages. You can convert a layout to a composition zone by choosing layout > advanced layout properties > share (check box).

Why would you want to do this? Continuing with the newspaper example, let’s assume that Eric has decided to assign the two-page, classified-ad section to their son, William. He creates a two-page layout, exports it as a composition zone, and gives it to William. As William fills in the ads on these two pages, Eric can watch it happen (and supervise if necessary) in real time (see figure 8).

Figure 8 A full-page composition zone based
on an entire layout.

Populating a Composition Zone

After you create a composition zone, you'll probably want to put something in it. To understand how this works, you must understand composition layouts.

A composition zone is essentially a window that shows the content of a special kind of layout called a composition layout. Remember that a layout like its predecssor, a QuarkXPress document, has a page size and contains some number of pages. A composition layout works the same way: it's a series of one or more pages, with a particular shape and size. You can open it up and work on it the same way you would any other layout. The only significant difference is, you can show the content of a composition layout in another layout implementing a composition zone.

If the concept still seems a little foggy, think of a composition layout as similar to an imported picture: it displays in a box, you can use it multiple times in the same layout (or in other layouts), and it shows up in the usage dialog box. Except instead of a picture, it's a complete, editable QuarkXPress layout. You'll see in the next section, another difference is that a composition layout can live pretty much wherever you want: even in the project where it's used.

Sharing a Composition Zone

After you create a composition zone, the first thing you should do is share it. Choose item > share (see figure 9). If you don’t do this, your composition zone won’t show up in the shared content palette, and consequently it won’t do you much good.

There’s a terminology trap to avoid here. You might assume that when you share a composition zone, that composition zone is available to other users. In reality, though, the term shared means shared by the layouts in a project. (For more information, see the sidebar Synchronization vs. Shared Content.)

Figure 9 The shared item properties dialog box lets you control how a composition zone is shared.

Keep in mind the difference between a composition zone and a composition layout. What you're doing in this dialog box is deciding where the composition layout will live and who will have what kind of access to it.

Name

Use this field to indicate how the composition layout should appear in the shared content palette.

Availability

Availability determines who can place composition zones based on this composition layout. If you choose this project only, only you can place composition zones based on this composition layout. If you choose all projects, a person with a different copy of QuarkXPress can link to your project and place a composition zone based on this composition layout in their layout. (If you're a one-person shop, the all projects setting also enables you re-use a complex graphic element such as an ad or logo in multiple projects.)

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