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QuarkXPress 8: A suite response

Get in line

Character alignment is an easy process for aligning the characters within a text box. In my examples, I have turned on the text box grid for the centerline and the baseline so that you may more easily see the effect.

Figure 20 Character alignment is a new option in the style menu when you have text selected.

In this example, I have taken a headline from one of our recent stories along with the byline. Before QuarkXPress 8, in order to vertically align this text, I would have selected the byline and added baseline offset.

Figure 21 With a text box gridline applied, and my text locked to the baseline grid, you can easily see that the baselines of both groups of characters are aligned.

While this is a fairly simple example, think about the ease in which you could align several bodies of text. To use this feature, select all the text in the text box and go to STYLE > CHARACTER ALIGNMENT.

Figure 22 After I have aligned my characters to the center, the results are obvious.

Guiding control

The guides feature gives you precise and extensive control over the project's guides (not to be confused with grids). You can use the guides palette (Window menu) to modify the color, placement, display, and orientation of each guide in a layout, or you can click and drag a guide and the spread number, page number, location, color, scale, visibility, locked status, page/spread designation, and orientation are added to or updated in the guides palette.

You may also select multiple guides (SHIFT + CLICK or COMMAND + CLICK) and delete multiple guides in one pass (click the TRASH icon or CONTROL + CLICK or RIGHT CLICK to access delete through the contextual menu).

Notice also that the palette is divided into columns, and like all good little tables, can be sorted by columns. This is a great way to be able to view all guides that are, for instance, related to specific items within your layout such as sidebars. Assign them a single color and then sort by that color.

Figure 23 The buttons across the top of the guides palette are: create a new guide, mirror guide, show horizontal guides, show vertical guides, and show only the current page/spread's guides.

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