Markware's ID2Q and Q2ID:
Get from there to here — and here to there —
in under five clicks.

By Tami Stodghill
Press Relations, XChange UK

You know the story, as many of you are living it — day in and day out. Your client presents you with their document, and it's up to you to replicate it within the application of their choice — or your choice. It sounds simple, but in reality it's generally a nightmare of tedious reformatting, and after hours of that, your next client's project arrives. Often enough to make you reconsider your choice of applications on some days, but before you hang up your mouse, take a minute to look at what might become the most important tools in your design tool chest.

ID2Q (Adobe InDesign to QuarkXPress) is an XTensions module for QuarkXPress® and Q2ID (QuarkXPress to InDesign) is a Plug-in for Adobe® InDesign® that provides a swift and efficient way to transform one application's elements into the other application's elements. That's right...an entirely new document in a snap! No more reformatting and lost time — the conversion is a simple menu selection.

The software is effortless to install and equally as easy to use. The return on investment is realized, in most cases, within your first use or two. Not to mention the frustration and redundant formatting it saves. Simply stated, ID2Q and Q2ID enable nearly painless data migration, reduce costs, and give you unprecedented liberation to use the desktop-publishing system of your choice.

"Being able to open an InDesign document in QuarkXPress or a QuarkXPress project in InDesign makes it possible to easily repurpose documents created in the 'other' application," states Markzware.

Components of the content within the originating application's document are automatically re-created within the destination application and include: page positioning, fonts and styles, images, and text attributes as well as tables, layers, blends, runarounds, linked text boxes and anchored boxes, and PANTONE® colors and other color models.

ID2Q's and Q2ID's conversion technology saves innumberable hours of scanning, re-keying and formatting and it will convert and transform files created from within InDesign or QuarkXPress on either the Windows or Macintosh platforms. The resulting file can then can be opened on both platforms and can be an instant money maker for those of you in service bureaus, printshops, and design firms.

Ralph Eberhard has his own ideas about the usefulness of ID2Q. Check out his review in X-Ray Magazine v5n1: Review: ID2Q7.

"ID2Q is an amazing little piece of software that installs into the XTensions folder in QuarkXPress. How well it does what it does is so brilliant that it borders on magic. It is the best XTension for QuarkXPress 7 I have ever used or heard of and the speed and thoroughness with which it creates new QuarkXPress documents out of InDesign CS documents is simply incredible," states Mause's review.

The same can be said for Q2ID.

While Markzware does state that it is important to note that even though ID2Q and Q2ID provide many benefits, conversion is not perfect — the majority of users find the products invaluable nonetheless. Any minor variations between the original document and the new file are generally because each of these manufacturers' professional layout applications have their own unique methods of text rendering.

So, strap on a new outlook, and gleefully accept those client files. You're armed now.

Markzware's ID2Q and Q2ID are available for both Mac and Windows. They are sold separately at $199 each and are available from XChange UK and ThePowerXChange.

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