Composition Zones Continued
Page 3

When Hannah sends her project file in, Eric simply drops it in the same folder as the host layout’s project file, and Hannah’s story appears in place, copyfitted and ready to go (see figure 5).

Figure 5 When Hannah returns her column via e-mail, it displays in the layout automatically.

Although a pithy writer, Hannah is not the world’s best with usage, so Eric opens up her composition zone file and makes edits; changing text such as “affect” to “effect.” (He could do the same with Nancy’s content, but he knows better than to edit her text.)

When the work is finished — several hours earlier than it used to be — Eric simply sends the layout to output as usual. With the extra time they’ve saved, Eric and Nancy go out and scoot a boot at the local country club.

Of course, this is only one way in which composition zones could be used. Nancy could just as easily have control of the host layout, and create composition zones for the ads. In fact, as their advertisers upgrade to QuarkXPress 7, Nancy and Eric could even send out composition zone files that allow their advertisers to construct the ads themselves. This would allow Nancy and Eric to offer a discount to do-it-yourself advertisers, and yet still receive those ads in a form that can be adjusted if necessary.

Now that you have an idea what the composition zones feature does, let’s get down to the nuts and bolts. How does it work?

Creating a Composition Zone

There are several different ways to create composition zones. The method you choose depends on what you want to accomplish.

From a Box or Boxes

You've already seen the first way to create a composition zone: Select one or more picture, text, or no-content boxes and choose item > composition zone > create. (You can also use the contextual menu with control or right click). This method of creating composition zones is useful if your layout is pretty much nailed down, and you just want somebody else to put content into existing boxes.

Figure 6 Creating a composition zone from multiple-selected boxes.

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