Quark 5 (PC) tables???

[Cowtoon]

Ok ... this isn't a rush. It's a project that will be coming down the tubes eventually.

I will be working on a large file (somewhere between 100-200 pages). There will be a significant number of tables ... some will be pages long. What's the best way to handle this in Quark. I've heard some nasty things aboutthis in Quark. Is there an option to create the table elsewhere and then import it. I realize it's more suited to a wordprocessing feature, but these table will contain a lot of technical information. Any thoughts, suggestions?

[LTG]

I wish I had more experience with tables in Quark - what little I know will be of no help to you, sorry. But I have books :) I'll see if there's anything in them that will help and get back to you, since there's no rush - and hopefully someone who has experience with Quark tables will also respond. That would be better, I'm sure.

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(When I grow up I want to be just like Keyare! He does excellent work - even when he's trying to not to.)

[Cowtoon]

Thanks LTG.
That's why I posted it now. I know that tables are not fun in Quark, but then ... I'm anything but a seasoned Quark user. I'm happy to be wrong, if you get my jist! I used Quark for about a month ... back in November and haven't really used it since, but I'll be working on a big document and want to know how to do this by the time this project comes down the tubes. When I had a 4-hour training session (back then) the trainer didn't put on a happy face when I asked about tables, so I'm not entirely hopeful. He suggested linking a gazillion text boxes to emulate tables - not an attractive alternative. Maybe some Quark guru will have an amazing method for creating a table in Quark. Wouldn't that be nice.

I'll keep checking, in case you find something in one of your reference books, or someone else has a method that works.

[LTG]

Well, the first thing I saw when I opened one of the books is that InDesign can import tables from MS Word or spreadsheets from MS Excel (with some reformating needed) but Quark can't. Not sure how much that helps but sometimes it good to know what you can't do so you don't waste your time trying. :)

If it wasn't for the last minute nothing would ever get done.
(When I grow up I want to be just like Keyare! He does excellent work - even when he's trying to not to.)

[D-Zine]

I'm not sure what the big deal about tables in Quark is...I mean why everyone hates them. Well...I hate tables period! LOL!!It doesn't matter what program to me...LOL! But I have done tables in Quark many timesand never had any bad experiences (other than that they are annoying no matter what! hehe) Cowtoon...before Quark really had the table feature I had a freelance job for this huge book called "The Book of Lists (basically a book of business listings)..and the pages were like 11x17 and it was nothing but table, after table, formatting, all that junk..and I did it by linking the text boxes as your instructor suggested but I wouldn't recommend that. It was a total pain!!!

When you get the job rollin post any questions you have and we will try and help you :o) But so far with the tables I haven't had any problems.

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[Cowtoon]

Unfortunately D-zine, there's no getting around this. It will have to be in tables as the information (3 columns) has text that needs to wrap within each of the cells otherwise, I'd simply tab it.

The first question that comes to my mind ... if text boxes are linked, what happens when you 'later' add a lot of text to one of those text cells/links. Do the cells expand to accommodate extra text, or will this have a cascading effect ... where they all spill into the next linked cell, causing havoc with all text cells that follow. The thought scares me!!!!

[D-Zine]

Ohh ewee...LOL! I wasn't suggesting tabbing all of the info.....actually I had to do that in the past when I was speaking above about that one book and I stated that that was a TOTAL pain! I do not suggest that at all!

Each cell is a seperate text box. If you type into one and fill it up you either have to adjust your table size or your point size for your font, but it doesn't spill over into the next text cell if you add something. They aren't linked and each one is a seperate cell so I don't think the flow of the copy will be a problem for you.

If you go the route with linking all those text boxes (instead of using tables)then you can and probobly will run into that flow issue. I would go with the tables if I were you...to avoid the flowing issue.

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[Cowtoon]

Ok ... so ... let me see if I understand what you are saying: create a bunch of text boxes aligned in three columns (of course, because that's what I want) and in rows (of course, again) and treat them all as if they were forming a table. And - I won't link them - to prevent spill-overs (that's the part I was missing).

Is that the jist of it?

[D-Zine]

Oh no! I was saying DON'T do the millions of text boxes! DO THE TABLES! All those text boxes will be nighmarish I promise you! LOL!

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[Cowtoon]

Ok ... so why can't I find where I select a table for insertion or creation or whatever? (Quark 5)

[D-Zine]

Its on your toolbox....its the icon that looks like a little grid. If you choose that then click and drag on your page, it will ask you how many rows and columns......and if you want picture or text cells. And thats it :o)

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[Cowtoon]

Thank you d-zine. I'll give that a try. Sorry I didn't respond before this ... have been crazy busy.

Working this weekend on that scientific article. Just about done ... final nits and pics are in, so I'm just finalizing the layout ... goes to publisher on Monday.

... am also learning web-design and have 4 sites out there (two that require regular maintenance) and another that need another page added, so I'm working on that ... was up til' 5:30 this mornin' ... it's gonna kill me. I'm trying to build a 5th site. There's just not enough time in a day ... !!!

Thanks again

[Lamna nasus]

Hi D-Zine,
A friend of mine is putting together a small travel brochure and again this involves lots of tables for pricing etc. would the advice you gave Cowtoon work in Quark 4.1 (yeah, I know he should upgrade!)? Someone else suggested a bunch of software Xtensions called 'The Grabbers' might help, but I don't know much about them and the website doesn't seem to list system requirements!

[aprilcartergrant]

Actually, you can import Excel data into Quark as tabbed text... I believe that you have to Save as... or Export... from Excel, creating a tab-delimited file. Then, in Quark, just Get Text (command-e) and locate it. At that point, it's just adjusting tabs, doing Rule Below (command-n), and adding some vertical lines...

+++ april carter +++

Coming soon: www.sugarsock.com

[Lamna nasus]

Hi April,
Thanx for your prompt response, although my friend knows about the importing of Excel data, he was hoping there was a quicker and easier way of creating price tables, to speed up his workflow (other people say he has a lazy streak about a mile wide, but I couldn't possibly comment!).

[Cowtoon]

Thank you all for your input. I've been doing a bit of reading in the Quark User Manual (what a concept ... read the manual!!! lol). Anyway, text can be converted to a table. And d-zine, like you say, there's a handy little table tool for creating a table. Control Tab is how you go to the next cell (on PC) and control shift tab is how you move backwards. I don't know a lot more ... gotta get back to the reading. It's certainly not as bad as I expected ... and thanks soooo much d-zine for telling me that a table could be created. My instructor (back in October or November) told me that tables coud 'not' be created in Quark. I'm soooo glad he was wrong.

Fortunately, there's still time to figure this out before the project comes down the tubes.
I like the idea of importing a CSV file from excel. That would work too. I might do some experimenting. If I can import the CSV into a 'tabbed' layout, then maybe Quark would convert to a table using tabs to separate the cells. That would be sooooo bad. I've done similar conversions from address books and into word processors using almost the same method. It might just work.

[D-Zine]

Hey Cowtoon - glad I could help some with the tables! See..they are not so bad ;o) Glad to see you are making progress! Good luck!

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[Debz]

ok i have a question regaurding this topic.. I made a table then Duplicated it.. I wanna just delete a few lines.. I cant find where to delete? help! :(

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[D-Zine]

You want to delete a few lines where Debz? In the table? Like the lines between the boxes that form the table?

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[Debz]

no like a table ..

the way im doin it is a table and say i have 10 boxes.. i wanna delete some boxes.. but i only can find add lines (boxes)

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[D-Zine]

Ohhh oh ok. I'm not sure Debz...I don't think you can delete boxes from an already existing table. I think you have to redraw the table and specify the number of rows and columns again. You can use the text tool and adjust where the lines for the boxes go so that some of them are wider than others and such, and you can insert rows and columns....but I don't think you can delete.

Hey Debz..are these tables you are duplicating already containing text or are they empty? I was just wondering bc if they are empty it will prolly just be quicker for you to do a new one each time instead of dup'ing it and then re-adjusting it. I'm not sure I helped any :o( but I hope I did! LOL!

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[Debz]

yeah they have type and tabs all set into the tables.. ;[ What im doing is a catalog and I couldnt find a way to shade the BG of every other line w/o using the tables.. So using them gets ridda a lot of spacing issues, etc, with tryin 2 shade the BG. (i dont know much bout quark) hehe. and looking at this thread actually helped me a LOT!!

But ill just make diff graphs for each one.. I was just lookin for a easy way to be lazy! :)

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[D-Zine]

we ALL do that sometimes I think...hehhehe! Glad the thread was helpful Debz ;o)

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[Debz]

hehe thanks for ur help! :)

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