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The Automaticl Text Box in QuarkXPress

May 15, 2009

The automatic text box feature is often a source of confusion for many QuarkXPress users. This option can be activated when creating a new document and allows you to use Quark in a similar way to a word processing package. Each page in the document automatically has a text box on it and once this box is filled with text, a new page is generated, also containing a text box.

Automatic text boxes are great for long documents. However, you will often see QuarkXPress users activating this option when creating short documents or even documents consisting of a single page. They make the assumption that all the feature does is to save them the trouble of creating a text box. In fact, if the text box ever becomes filled with text (which can easily happen as you experiment with different text formats), a new page is immediately generated and your single page document becomes a two page document.

Another simple error new QuarkXPress users tend to make, is clicking on the text box tool then trying to edit text. This one is not so serious since it’s a non-starter: the only thing you can do with the text box tool is create text boxes. The correct tool for editing text is the Content tool, the second tool on the QuarkXPress toolbar.

Another popular type of confusion with the QuarkXPress tools is when to use the Item tool and when to use the Content tool. One often sees beginners trying to edit or import text while the Item tool is selected. Like the text box tool error, it’s not such a biggie since sooner or later you will remember that you have to select the Content tool before you access the text inside the box.

Another common Item/Content tool error is that new users will often insist on selecting the Item tool when resizing a box: in fact, resizing works fine regardless of whether the Content or Item tool is selected.

QuarkXPress newbies will often create more text boxes than they need to (This box is for my heading, this one is for my subheading, and so on…), forgetting that the format of text can be changed as many times as necessary within the same box. Separate text boxes need to be created only where the attributes of different blocks of text cannot be accommodated within the same box: for example, a heading spanning two columns above a two column story.

Beginners in QuarkXPress will often spend a lot of time aligning headings within a text box, for example vertically centring, forgetting that, since the box will not print, all that matters is the position of the text itself on the page. A good way of curing this one is to get into the habit of pressing F7 (a shortcut for View – Guides). This keystroke toggles the visibility of the QuarkXPress margin and ruler guides as well as the edges of boxes that have no frames. This means that you are always reminded of which elements will actually be visible when the document prints.

The author of this article is a trainer and developer with Macresource Computer Training, an independent computer training company offering QuarkXPress classes in London and throughout the UK.

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