X-Ray Magazine OpenNow Pro for QuarkXPress 8 and InDesign CS3

By Cyndie Shaffstall

When your fingers and brain cells are collaborating on your latest award-winning design, and the ideas are coming fast and furious, the last thing you want to do is actually stop and think about what you're doing. Editing graphics while you're deeply entrenched in your page-design application is always a pain, especially the part about choosing the best application for the job. OpenNow Pro — for QuarkXPress and InDesign — intervenes on your behalf.

Editor's Note: With the recent release of OpenNow Pro for QuarkXPress 8 and InDesign CS3, we've resurrected parts of this story from the One-trick Ponies article and updated the links so that you can try the new versions.

OpenNow Pro for QuarkXPress 6, 7, or 8 and
OpenNow Pro for InDesign CS3, $49, Mac Only


OpenNow Pro for QuarkXPress	OpenNow Pro for InDesign

OpenNow Pro for QuarkXPress	OpenNow Pro for InDesign

I think it's probably quite rare that a desktop publisher, designer, or production person works in a single application these days. We are expected to be the master of our domain — and our competitor's domain. That means we create a brochure, color correct the images, and illustrate the logos. We're probably also making the web page and throwing together Flash® ads for good measure. OpenNow Pro makes these tasks easier. Just click, click.

Select any image and click, click. In the resulting dialogue box (shown immediately below for QuarkXPress 8 and on page two, the same dialogue box for InDesign CS3), you now have more information about that image than you dreamed you'd need. Click the open with drop-down menu and you will practically fly to the application of your choice for a quick editing session. No longer are you limited to editing the image with the OS-assigned default.

Click the image for a more detailed description and interactive view.

Figure 1 All of the OpenNow Pro options are found in this one dialogue box, but you can get here in one of three ways: select a picture in the document and do one of the following: double-click on it with the picture content tool selected, or right-click with your mouse and select Badia OpenNow Pro, or select Badia OpenNow Pro from the style menu.



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About the author:

Cyndie Shaffstall is publisher, editor, and contributing author to X-Ray Magazine. She began her career working in print and type shops. At the introduction of the Macintosh to the print industry in the mid-80s, Shaffstall became a corporate trainer helping print-shop professionals adopt and adapt to the Mac. She has authored or co-authored many books on computer software, and self-published her first, QuarkXPress: Making the Most of Your Negative Experiences and her most recent, QuarkXPress 8: production tricks and experts' tips. In 1995, Shaffstall founded ThePowerXChange, a software-distribution company dedicated to extensions technology. In addition to ThePowerXChange, Shaffstall is the managing member of StrappyArt, LLC, the distributor of StrappyArt, which she invented in 2006. She has recently joined Spider Trainers, LLC, as the SEO/SMO advisor. She is also director of QuarkAlliance at Quark, Inc.