Quark 5 (PC) 3-column gutter question

[Cowtoon]

In my quark layout, I have the text flowing in 3 columns (for magazine article). Now that the text and images is all there, is there any way to change (slightly) the width of the columns and the gutter space (right lingo?) between them ... just a smidgen? I can't find where to do this. If it's not an option, I'll just deal with it. Thanks.

[LTG]

With your text box selected go to modify - first thing listed under 'item' or do 'control M' - (which I guess you're familiar with since you have already selected how many columns...) the next item under where you specify how many columns is the gutter width and you can specify something (.042' - 4') besides the default 0.167'.

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.)

[Cowtoon]

Actually, I didn't know about 'control M, because I first setup the page this way ... didn't know how to modify. I'll do it now and come right back ... and post how it works. Hey Thanks ... It worked ... that did the trick. It was probably such a simple question, but I'm not used to Quark yet and don't know where, in the menus, things are stored ... and this is a bit of a rush, or I'd have taken more time. Got too many projects on the go ... life as I know it. Thanks again.

[LTG]

no problem - glad to help - simple quark questions are probably the only ones I actually know the answers to :)

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.)

[Cowtoon]

Of course ... sometimes it's simple when you know where to look ... Quark just totally mystifies me. To me ... it should have been in the page setup. I must have looked there 10 times. I would have never thought to look under item ... to me ... an item is an image or something. Anyway ... I never look in the right place to do things in Quark. Maybe it's because I'm a PC person and Quark was originally created for the Mac. I can remember (almost 10 years ago) working on a Mac ... just for a couple of days ...and I just hated that I couldn't do anything with keystrokes. Now ... it's almost all keystrokes ... little is done through mouse access. I'm used to being able to use both ... if my hands are on the mouse, I use it ... if my hands are on the keyboard ... I use key strokes. And ... hey ... maybe it's me that's different ... lol.

I appreciated your help. I was able to change the columns just an eensy bit and it did what I wanted it to do, without sacrificing the look I wanted or legibility.

[LTG]

If you have time (which it sounds like you don't right now but...) you can check out the Quark program files on your hard drive. The document folder has PDFs of the keyboard commands, the manual and other docs that can be printed out and you might find helpful (course the manual is almost 700 pages and you might not want to use up a ream and a half of paper and a toner cartridge to do that :) The QuarkXpress folder (separate from the program files) has some tutorials in it - which if you're somewhat familiar with quark already you could probably just zip through and catch the stuff you're not sure about.

If you're used to using the keyboard commands for Adobe software then Quark can be kind of irritating because many are different. Someone suggested to me several years ago when I was learning Quark that I force myself to learn a new one every day and I'm using that advice for Illustrator since it is my own software hurdle at the moment. Some days I've had to relearn the same one as the day before. :)

I think the main difference between mac and pc commands is that on a pc you use control and on a mac its the command key. Maybe it's not as simple as that with everything but but then I've been on a pc several years now also.

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.)

[Cowtoon]

Thanks. You're right ... don't have time right now. Entirely crazy busy. I definitely haven't taken the time to go through the files on the hard drive. I try to use the help, but I don't use the same syntax as Quark, so it's almost fruitless! Tutorials work well for me, so perhaps I'll give that a try. I heard the same about the keystroke difference between the PC and the Mac. Good luck with Illustrator. I'm a CorelDraw person ... through and through. I couldn't get the precision in Illustrator that I'm used to, with CorelDraw. I'm biased though ... have been using CorelDraw for 10 years and Illustrator for a couple of months. I talked the company I'm with, into buying CorelDraw ... I'm elated!