Quark Interactive Designer
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Exercise 6: Export as SWF

Once we complete a work, we need to export it as SWF. SWF is the file type that is created when a Flash animation is compiled. All that really means is that we are going to convert our objects, the actions, the timing, and so on, to a single viewable file.

To do that, go to file > export > exporter for Macromedia Flash. In the top area of the exporter dialogue, choose a location to save the export. In the bottom portion of the exporter dialogue, there are additional options. For other settings, such as font rules and compression, click the options button. See figure 18.

Figure 1. View of the exporter dialogue. To further explore your options, hit the options button.

After hitting the options button, the export settings dialogue appears. As with most things, if you don't have the fonts things aren't going to look right. You should absolutely embed your fonts. Luckily, this is the default setting so you don't need to worry about it every time you export. See figure 19.

Figure 19 You should embed your fonts.

Now choose export settings > compression (tab). This is how you can set your compression settings. It might take some time before you feel comfortable playing with this, but here's the break down. The highest JPEG quality means that your final flash animation will look fantastic, but the file will be larger. On the web, larger files tend to be the enemy because of download times. Lowest JPEG quality means that the files will be small, but will look like total garbage. Finding the balance is the key. For a while, don't change this setting. Wait until you have the time to experiment with the different values. Check out figure 20.

Figure 20 These values allow you to change the compression settings for your SWF export.

Once your settings are correct, click export settings > ok and then exporter dialogue > save. The layout that you were just working on will now be exported as a real Flash file.

Customizing with QuarkXTensions

Installing Quark Interactive Designer, a QuarkXTensions, customizes QuarkXPress to fit the needs of many hybrid print-web designers. It's the perfect middle ground for many print projects that have a web presence and makes sense when investing the time, resources, and money into a full-blown application such as Flash is more than your occasional projects warrant.

There are thousands of third-party XTensions available, and each one is QuarkXPress customization in a box. Adding a variable-data XTensions module, such as Xdata, for instance, means that a customer can create projects such as price lists, directories, and calendars on the fly; but that feature holds little charm for the prepress operator who uses QuarkXPress to generate printer's spreads and proofs. The beauty of XTensions as a solution, is that neither the prepress operator or the production artist is saddled with complex features that they will never use.

Quark has a developer community that numbers in the thousands, with the vast majority of those companies creating commerically available products. You can find most of these online at ThePowerXChange.com and other XTensions distributors around the world.

Quark's commitment to the XTensions developer community is obvious when you consider the many promotions that are announced throughout the year including or featuring XTensions solutions.

Summary

Quark Interactive Designer is an incredibly handy and versatile design tool that allows you to take your designs to Flash. As you get more acquainted with QuID, you will find that most of the functionality in the program is based on the few skills you have acquired just by reading this article, however, there is much more to learn.  There is a series of tutorials and sample projects that show you how to create interactive projects with QuID. You can download it by clicking here.

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