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Subject:Re: QUARK Products From:"Arlen P. Walker" <Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 24 Oct 1995 07:31:00 -0600
--Is anyone out there using QUARK Express? What are its chief
advantages/disadvantages?
I guess I'm rather bemused that someone *hasn't* heard of Quark Xpress, seeing
as how most weekly newspapers and many magazines use it as their publishing
tool. Just goes to show how experiences differ.
Its advantages are complete control of typography in particular and appearance
in general. Quark gives you incredible control over the placement and appearance
of your text. It is nearly unequalled in its handling of short text pieces and
graphics, which is why the newspaper and magazine industries find it so
appealling.
Its main disadvantages are in the handling of long documents. Doing TOC's and
indexes of long documents can be nightmarish. Though it's improving there (I
haven't worked with it recently so I don't know how much better it's become).
--Are QUARK products known and used throughout the Tech Writing
industry?
(I've been told that the products are only known in this region).
Quark has a strong national presence, and is generally considered the premiere
Macintosh DTP program (though PageMaker fans will dispute this, I'm sure). We
use it in areas here. Whoever says it's only known in your region is full of
male bovine excrement.
--What kind of reputation does Quark have? They seem to be
portraying themselves as very 'cutting edge' in WWW tools. Is this
accurate?
They have a good reputation for products and a mediocre to bad reputation for
customer support. Not that the support is bad, just that they're so reluctant to
give it. When they give it, it's good, but they don't give it without charging
you some fairly high dollar amounts first.
I remember the high-profile story of a firm in Florida who lost everything in
Hurricane Andrew. Quark refused to replace the software lost in the hurricane,
even though they didn't dispute that the firm had a license to run it. Their
attitude was one of "Tough. You should have kept better backups." Ordinarily a
valid point, agreed, but this case was a little extreme.
Have fun,
Arlen
arlen -dot- p -dot- walker -at- jci -dot- com
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