By cyndie shaffstall

Multi Style II XT for QuarkXPress 8 provides easy block-based style sheets for formatting of price lists, tab data, catalogue text, and more.

When you use a paragraph-based style sheet in QuarkXPress, the application looks for paragraph returns as a stop mechanism. When a paragraph return is encountered, QuarkXPress applies the style up to that point. If you have a portion of a paragraph selected, it will still apply the paragraph style to the entire paragraph. With character-based style sheets, QuarkXPress applies the style to only the selected text.

These methods are great for many of your publishing tasks, but when you are creating complex documents such as prices lists, catalogues, or even tables, you often need to have a different style applied to blocks of text that appear in the same paragraph.

Yes, this could be achieved using character-based styles sheets, but you would have to select every bit of text and you could not apply paragraph-level style attributes such as rules above and below. Multi Style II XT solves this problem.

Getting started

When you have successfully installed Multi Style II XT (Mac only, QuarkXPress 4/5/6 and 8, 99 euros [subject to PayPal's exchange rate]), you will find that it has been added to the edit, utilities, and window menus. In addition to these menus, many of the functions can be invoked through keyboard commands or options set from within the dialogue boxes or palette.

Figure 1 In the first line of the products, I have created a set of styles. The center column is blue, the third column is bolded. I want to copy and apply this styling to the other lines.

The simplest use of Multi Style II XT is to select a paragraph that has a style you want to copy as shown in figure 1, then type command + control + C or choose utilities > copy (paragraph). Select the paragraph to which you wish to apply the style and type command + control + P or choose utilities > apply (paragraph).

If you would prefer to choose your own shortcuts, choose utilities > Multi Style II XT > settings, click in the appropriate field, and in the resulting dialogue box type the preferred keyboard shortcut.

Figure 2 Use the settings dialogue box to define the keyboard shortcuts and to set the preferences for enabling the start-up screen and undo.

If you would like the ability to undo applied multistyles, check the box to enable this feature. This is a memory-intensive function, so enabling it could cause performance issues.

Hidden characters may be used to define blocks of text. They are inserted into the body copy as small triangles, but they will not print. Multi Style II XT uses hidden text to discern the start and stop of style changes. These are also called (sub)field separators. You don’t have to use hidden text, you could also use characters that are already a part of your copy. In figure three, line one, I have replaced the tab characters with hidden text, and in line two, I have kept the tabs for use as (sub)field separators.

Figure 3 In this sample, I have replaced the tabs (separators) within the first line with hidden characters.

In addition to hidden text, you have the option of setting up other characters for use as (sub)field separators. To do this, choose utilities > options.

Figure 4 There are two views of the option dialogue box: paragraph and word. The view is indicated by the label below the title bar.

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