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QuarkXpress Tutorial #0001: Basic Page Set-up

Before you begin, you will want to download this archive which contains the images and text used in this tutorial. We are creating a one-page article for a local interest magazine detailing what we did on summer vacation. In this case, we went on a space shuttle mission.In this tutorial we will create a single page document, with several photos, blocks of text, and background images.

1. Start QuarkXPress.

2. Create a new document (FILE > New > Document). You will be presented with a dialog box asking you to specify the size of the page, margins, and column guides. We will leave our page size set to 8.5 x 11, and our margins at 0.25 inches at all sides.

3. Once our new page is open, we will want to set up guides. Use the Item tool, click on the ruler at the left of the screen, and drag the guide out to 2.5 inches. You should see a green line running the height of the document window. Do the same to place a horizontal guide, clicking and dragging from the top ruler down to the 2 inch mark.

4. Now, we want to place our background images. Select the Rectangular Picture Box Tool . We will place our side bar first, then the main background. Click and drag from the upper left corner of the screen (at 0,0), and drag over to the 2.5 inch mark, then down to the bottom edge of the document. You may want to zoom in to the edges to make sure that things are lining up correctly. The right edge of the image box should snap to the guide that we set earlier. To zoom out, hold down the Option key while clicking (the + sign in the little magnifying glass will turn into a - sign).

5. Now, we will select the Content Tool , click inside the image box, and select GET PICTURE from the FILE MENU. You will be presented with a dialog box prompting you to select your image. You will want to choose moon1.tif, and click the OPEN button (or hit the return key). You can use the content tool to move the image around in the text box. It should be the correct size.

6. Now, we need to place the second image box. Select the rectangular image box tool again, and place the new image box so that it fills the rest of the page. Again, zoom in on the edges to make sure that the items are aligned correctly with the actual document edges.

7. Select GET PICTURE again from the FILE menu. Select the image named suitguy.tif. This image will need scaling. Use the Content tool to position the image near the center of the image box. Make sure that the Measurements floater is open (image). In the scale areas, we will want to set the image scale to 200% x 200%. Again, move the image around until you get a nice cropping of the space suit guy (or girl). You will want to make sure that you do not have any white lines between the left edge of the image and the side bar image.

Now our background is finished. You will want to save this file now. Go to the FILE menu and select Save. Name the file qxp0001.

Now, we will insert our title and illustration photos from our trip into space.

8. Create a rectangular picture box. Start at the top left corner of the document, and create a box that covers the width of the page down to the 2-inch mark (you set up a guide for this in step 3 (link back to it). This will hold our title image.

9. Use the Get Picture command, select the image titled maintitle.eps. You will want to center this is in the picture box.

Notice the white background behind the title text? We will want to remove that. We can do this using Clipping.

10. Select the image using the content tool. Go to the ITEM menu and select Clipping…. You will be presented with a dialog box. (insert image) Set the type to Item, click the OK button, and your title will be clipped to show just the text (the background will be transparent).

11. Next, we want to put in the other images. Try out some of the various picture box shapes! Try to use an oval, or rounded edge box, or bezier box. We have two images left to place, so create two boxes. One should be no more than three inches wide, and the other no more than 4 inches wide. Try to have one rectangular box and one box with an odd shape.

12. In the first picture box (rectangular), we will want to get the image titled shuttle2.tif. You may have to use the scale options to make this image fit (you can crop out areas). The second image to place is titled spacewalk.tif. You may want to scale this as well.

13. Once you have the images placed and arranged, it is time to add text. You can type your text directly in Quark, but it is also possible to import text, just as you would an image. There are three text documents in the tutorial archive that we will use.

14. Select the Rectangular Text Box tool. Draw a rectangular box next to the shuttle1.tif image box.

15. Use the Content tool, and click inside the text box. Go to the File menu. Note that the item which used to read "Get Picture" now reads Get Text. Choose this option. In the dialog box, locate the text file named cargobay.txt. Open this file. The text should appear in the text box. You will need to set the font and size using the Style menu. Pick a nice font and size. Set the box color to None in the Colors palette.

16. Now, we are going to get a bit tricky (okay, not much, but it's still fun). Create a second rectangular text box next to, and overlapping the second image (the one in the odd shaped box). Import the document named spacewalk.txt. Set up the fonts and size, and change the alignment to Right.

17. Use the Item tool to select this text box, and the picture box (hold down the shift key while clicking to select multiple items). Drag these two off the page area and onto the paste board.

18. Select the Image. Go to the ITEM menu and select Send to Back.

19. With the text block still selected, go to the ITEM menu again and select "Runaround". A dialog box will appear. You can enter the amount of spacing you would like to appear between the text and the object it "runs around". Try entering a value of 4 in each of the boxes. Click the OK button to accept these values.

20. We will want to group these items. Select the text box with the Item tool, hold down the shift key and click the picture box too. Go to the ITEM menu and select Group.

Now we will place the last text box.

21. Select the rectangular text box tool. Draw a rectangle that goes from the 2.75 inch mark to the 8.5 inch mark horizontally and is 2.75 inches high.

22. Choose Get Text from the File menu, and select the document named "journeypara.txt". Format this text to match the other text blocks.

When you are finished, we will want to print this document. If you can, we will want to print this to 11 x 17 paper.

Printing in Quark

To print this document. We will need to go to FILE> Page Setup. Make sure that the Print Style is set to the correct printer (in the labs it should read "HP 8000 Printer" rather than "Default").

1. In the Documents tab, you will want to set the Registration to Off-Center.

2. In the Setup tab, select the paper size. We want to set it to 11 x 17 (or Tabloid).

3. In the Output tab, we will want to set our Halftoning to Printer rather than Conventional.

Click the Print button. If everything is the way you want it to look, this tutorial is finished. If not, you can go back and tweak the layout until everything is to your satisfaction.

Now you know how to setup a page in Quark!

-J