Can quark deal with Word files

[EmerginT]

Hi everyone,
I am working with an old version of quark - but a new computer has been bought and Quark 7 is on the shelf in front of me, soon to be installed. As another guy is going to install it, sometime in the very near future i hope, i cannot check what will happen.
The company i work for has a Word template for a small 26 page book on their website that customers can download. Is Quark 7 able to open a Word file? Can Word convert to a pdf and would it make more sense to have them send that to us - basically we will end up checking to see if they set up their file right and sending it to the printer.
Also, does Quark 7 work well with Indesign files? If they send me an Indesign file, does it have to be saved as a pdf or eps first or will Quark open the Indesign file.
Just want to make sure i am telling the sales people to give their customers the right info.
any info greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

[jimking]

Quark can't open a word file unless the word doc is saved as rich text or another format only to flow text into Quark, not images and justifications. You can produce pdfs from word through the "print dialog box." Some versions of Word have a pdf button option in the tool bar. Quark 7 is better at placed PDFs than previous versions but not perfect. Keep in mind that a pdf from Word is chock full of RGB images and 4/color black type, not good for offset printing but can be fixed using Enfocus Pitstop which most printers possess. In order for Quark to open an InDesign file you'll need a plugin such as this one http://www.markzware.com/id2q/. You can except a pdf from InDesign and place it in Quark, but be careful.

[PrintDriver]

Even the Markzware plug-ins are not perfect. Watch your flow and wrap for starters. Urstwhile posted somewhere recently a list of things to watch for going from Quark to InDesign. Not many people going the other way.:p

[EmerginT]

Yeah - I have only been at this company for a month and I am not sure if they are doing things right. We have both Indesign and Quark here. But the one guy who works here whos been here a couple years but now is only here 3 days a week keeps insisting we have to use Quark. Most people don't have Quark i know, - I would be all for just setting up a new template in Indesign but the template that they have been using is in Quark. I have only set up one of these books so far and i used a preexisting one for the template.
There is a graphic designer out of town that has set these books up for them in the past also. She told me that you can't set it up in Indesign for some reason which i totally don't understand. It is a small 26 page book - why would you not be able to set it up in Indesign? or maybe she doesn't know how to use Indesign - I mean how complicated can it be?
I just don't want to screw it up and it goes to print and is an expensive disaster as they usually have about 5000 of these printed up at a time.

And it doesn't seem like the template should be offered as a Word document on the website. Look at the template - its at www.fingertipbooks.com. Go under "yours" and the templates are there. Seems like an Indesign one should be there instead - do you think?