Item And Contents: An Important Distinction In Quarxpress 8

One of the key concepts which any user of QuarXPress 8 needs to master is the difference between item and content. Basically, an item is an object or container while the contents of an item may either be graphics, text or nothing at all. Understanding this concept and being aware of which level you need to be working at to perform a given operation can help new users to avoid a good deal of confusion and frustration.

There are four types of item which one can create in QuarkXPress: picture boxes, text boxes, path text, lines and tables. Text boxes and picture boxes are both containers and QuarXPress allows you to convert one of them into the other. Simply right-click and choose Content then Graphic, Text or None. An example of this distinction is the use of Item and Content tools.

They are the first two tools on the toolbar and the two that are most frequently used.

The Item tool is used for manipulating items. Typically, one one highlights this tool when you want to move items around and when you want to work with groups of items. When this tool is active, it is not possible to manipulate the contents of items. Thus, for example you cannot select the text in a text box or move a picture around inside a picture box. Naturally, lines are never containers, so it doesn't usually make any difference which tool is selected when you want to manipulate a line. Tables in QuarkXPress have three levels: the item level, the cells level and the text level. Basically, as far as QuarkXPress is concerned, a table is simply a series of text and/or picture boxes stitched together. Each cell is basically a box which can have the same content choices as other boxes: graphic, text or none.

If the Item tool is selected, you can only work with the table as a whole. However, when the Content tool is active, you can work either with the contents of an individual cell or you can drag across a range of cells to work at the cell level. Grouping items is really flexible in QuarkXPress. Basically, if you click on any item in a group using the Item tool the program highlights all the items in the group. However, if you click on an item which is part of a group using the Content tool, the group is ignored and you can still edit the contents of that item.

In fact, you can even move the item by holding down the Control key and dragging it. Another important distinction between Item and Content can be found in the menu: Item-related commands are all in the Item menu, while command relating to the contents of items is found in the Style menu.

The author is a trainer and developer with Macresource Computer Training, an independent computer training company offering QuarXPress Classes in London and throughout the UK.
Author is a developer and trainer with OnsiteTrainingcourses. Com , an independent computer training company offering QuarkXPress training courses at their central London training centre.

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