Neither QuarkXPress 8 nor InDesign CS5 is a fully-featured web editor or IDE, nor are they fully-featured Flash authoring applications. The result is that neither program will be able to deliver a dynamic, database driven web site. However, QuarkXPress has some limited capabilities to refer dynamically to objects such as video clips and images, and can also load text from a data source to display variable data or calculate URLs to automatically display images. These are some of the limitations of QuarkXPress 8.
The most obvious limitation of QuarkXPress when it comes to interactive output is that it can only output SWF files which by their very nature cannot be edited in Flash Professional. This will not change any time soon, since the FLA format is proprietary to Adobe and therefore unavailable to Quark.
The interactive output generated by QuarkXPress is clearly meant to be an end station, rather than a starting point for more complex code.
As QuarkXPress 8 aims to provide a complete Flash authoring environment without requiring programming skills, the number of transitions may be impressive but does not include the page curl effect. Consequently, creating the typical digital magazine look and feel in QuarkXPress is impossible. The new functionality expected later this year that enables exports to the Blio eBook Reader software may change that.
The output can be directed to a SWF file to be played in Flash Player, but also to a Windows or Mac OS X Projector file. These files contain Flash Player so they are self sufficient. However, they can never contain the latest version of the Flash Player as this would require Quark to update QuarkXPress 8 every time Adobe releases a new point version of Flash Player.
At the time of writing this report, the embedded version of the Flash Player was at 10.0.22, whereas the latest version was at 10.1.53.64. The version of the Flash Player matters because of the security problems that are often encountered with Adobe Flash, although this is somewhat less the case when exporting to a Projector file.
Complex interactivity such as represented by simulations or games is certainly possible with QuarkXPress’ largely GUI driven approach, but then requires the designer to have at least entry-level knowledge of scripting languages, i.e. a knowledge of variables, loops, etc. This comes about because beyond the hundreds of pre-configured actions, QuarkXPress 8 also supports a more powerful but more complex expressions language.
While still user interface driven, you need to understand the concepts in order to successfully create more complex projects.
With regards to Web layout, QuarkXPress’ limitations fall in the category of overshooting one’s purpose. For example, when a user duplicates a two-column print layout to a web layout, QuarkXPress 8 will attempt to preserve the design of the print layout “at all costs”. The resulting HTML page will be formatted to look exactly like the print layout.
This will be achieved not by using CSS floating elements or even absolute positioning, but by using tables.
Tables in print layouts will not keep some of their formatting, such as background blends, rotated text, etc.
Users need to create meta tags themselves. The CSS styles are normally embedded in the page, and although users can select to export CSS in a separate file, in practice this file stays empty on export.
Some features are not available for text boxes in Web layouts, such as hanging characters, tracking, kerning, and H&J specifications, non-breaking characters, OpenType styles, “Lock to grid”, emphasis marks, and, vertical story direction.
To maintain these features in Web layouts, users need to convert them to graphics on export.
Finally, QuarkXPress 8 forms are limited in use as QuarkXPress cannot create the server-side script or application needed to make the form work.
Next part: Dreamweaver, Flash Catalyst, and Flash Professional CS5
Related:
- InDesign CS5′s limitations with regards to interactive design
- QuarkXPress or InDesign for interactive design?
- Creating and delivering interactive content for all leading Digital Devices through a worldwide distribution network
- niiu lets you customise your daily newspaper, QuarkXPress Server delivers it
