X-Ray Magazine v5n4 Tools of the Trade XTensions and Plug-ins

Tools of the Trades
Page 4

Exportools for InDesign and QuarkXPress
US$99.99 – $179.99 | Macintosh only

Exportools for QuarkXPress or InDesign (US$99.99), and Exportools Professional for QuarkXPress (US$179.99) address a different, yet related, set of production needs. Exportools automates the process of exporting individual pages, spreads, or selections to separate files. Generate high-resolution output as EPS, PostScript, and PDF or extract InDesign document text as JPEG, SVG, INX, and INDD or QuarkXPress project text as plain text, RTF, WordPerfect, Microsoft Word, JPEG, PICT, GIF, or HTML.

X-Ray Magazine v5n4 Tools of the Trade: Print XTensions and Plug-ins Figure 20

Figure 20 Exportools is available for both QuarkXPress and InDesign. For QuarkXPress, there is also a professional version. The screen grab, above, is for Exportools Pro for QuarkXPress.

X-Ray Magazine v5n4 Tools of the Trade: Print XTensions and Plug-ins Figure 21

Figure 21 This is the main dialogue box for Exportools for InDesign CS3. In the next few figures, we'll dissect these dialogue boxes and take a look at the individual options.

With Exportools Pro for QuarkXPress, you are not limited to exporting from the document or project that you have open. Using the source files area of the dialogue box, select multiple files for export and optionally choose to export all layouts within a project.

X-Ray Magazine v5n4 Tools of the Trade: Print XTensions and Plug-ins Figure 22

Figure 22 The source files area of the main dialogue box is where you can define the documents with which you will be working.

Exportools processes to text and graphics equally. The graphic support is very robust and includes EPS, PostScript, PDF, Text, Picture, and HTML.

Export Selections with InDesign

New to Exportools 2.0 for InDesign is the ability to export selections of items. Extremely easy to define, just select the items in the InDesign document, and Exportools will save that portion of the document to the desired format. You can optionally specify a margin bleed around the selection.

X-Ray Magazine v5n4 Tools of the Trade: Print XTensions and Plug-ins Figure 23a

X-Ray Magazine v5n4 Tools of the Trade: Print XTensions and Plug-ins Figure 23b

X-Ray Magazine v5n4 Tools of the Trade: Print XTensions and Plug-ins Figure 23c

Figure 23 Exportools provides for exporting not just text, but also graphics. From the save pages as area, choose a file format from the drop-down menu. In Exportools Pro, you may also choose from output styles that you have already created, or choose to define new ones.

X-Ray Magazine v5n4 Tools of the Trade: Print XTensions and Plug-ins Figure 24

Figure 24 When saving pages, you can choose all pages, a page range, or list individual pages.

You must, of course, define a place for Exportools to store the exported text or images. In this area of the main dialogue box, you click to browse for a folder. You may optionally choose to create a sub folder for each document that you have queued for export. The two text fields enable you to predefine the names of these subfolders.

X-Ray Magazine v5n4 Tools of the Trade: Print XTensions and Plug-ins Figure 25

Figure 25 Saving you the need to plan ahead, use the create subfolders option and Exportools Professional will automatically create folders as needed to support the documents you have queued for export.

Automatic, Powerful File Naming

Because Exportools can create dozens or even hundreds of files almost instantly, a proper file naming scheme is essential. The mechanisms of Exportools ensures that each file has a different name, and that it can easily be recognized.

In this area of the main dialogue box, specify variable placeholders, such as page or serial numbers, that change automatically. Each file will then be automatically assigned a unique name upon export. By combining these variables with other placeholders or any custom text, you have virtually endless file naming possibilities.

X-Ray Magazine v5n4 Tools of the Trade: Print XTensions and Plug-ins Figure 26a

X-Ray Magazine v5n4 Tools of the Trade: Print XTensions and Plug-ins Figure 26b

Figure 26 The powerful naming engine of Exportools ensures that you will end up with unique names for each exported text or graphics file. Choose your custom options from the pop-up menus.

When files are exported, you may have need to continue working with them in other applications. From this area of the main dialogue box, you can choose the applications in which you wish to work. For example, select Adobe Photoshop to open the saved EPS files; or have Microsoft Word open the pages you just exported as text. Exportools also tracks the most recent post-processing applications you've used, so you can quickly switch.

X-Ray Magazine v5n4 Tools of the Trade: Print XTensions and Plug-ins Figure 27

Figure 27 A quick shortcut for additional document processing is found in the post-processing area. Define, choose, or change applications with which you wish to continue your work.

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