First, let me apologize for the length of this post and the complexity. Hopefully you folks can figure out what I am saying. Sorry also for the long quotes in previous posts. I should know better having operated BBSs and groupware systems going back before the Internet. Does anyone remember Fidonet?
I should tell you a bit about myself so you will know where I am coming from here. I began back in the 1970 in press and prepress. No computers. It was a different industry altogether back then. Then the computer turned prepress people into typesetters and typesetters into prepress people and the graphic artists came along for the ride because they could. My first setup was a Mac Plus running System 6, Aldus PageMaker, Aldus Freehand, a few Adobe fonts and the good old 300 dpi LaserWriter II with the Canon engine for which I paid $5200 (yes, just the printer). I switched to QuarkXPress and Adobe Illustrator with Photoshop somewhere in the mid-ninties. With QuarkXPress 3.1, Command-K was used to get rid of a text box. Option-Command-K and you would see a little martin march out on your screen and shoot the box with his laser.
I shall confess up front now that I do not have recent experience with the latest software. I own a copy of QuarkXpress 6.5 (old now and does not run on newer Macs) and I have not done much for about a dozen years. However, the software was getting very sophisticated and the latest developments were steering toward integrating web publishing and repurposing of content. InDesign was still trying to topple QuarkXPress when I stopped training people in this sort of software. There may be some improvements to what I suggest here.
Anyway:
• I found Wheel Jump in Preferences->General. I'm not sure why it is called Wheel Jump or why it is next to Language. I experimented and found that a setting of 8 works best when zoomed out, however, it is painfully slow when zoomed in, so the setting would have to be a bit higher or lower depending on zoom level. It is not smooth, but a bit jiggly and slides around. I think I can live with it. I could not type a value in and had to use the up and down arrows. Note that the setting that works for me may differ slightly for other Mac users as it probably depends on the device used (mouse, trackpad, etc.).
I sort of found the setting for space inside a box. The space around a box is interesting and I'll have to experiment with it to learn how it works. Understanding that a table is text boxes collected together is good to know, however that is probably why the Table feature is, well, a bit rudimentary.
• Tables are pretty basic and need work. As I recall, tables came to QuarkXPress as an Xtension. QuarkXPress gained many features through its very powerful Xtension technology. There was an Xtension Manager for activating and deactivating Xtensions. Most software calls this sort of technology plugins now.
• Vertical justification of box contents would be useful.
• Sure enough, I had Sticky Tools on. Now I can draw a box and the tool switches. Great, saves a step of hitting 'C'. Next would be to have a setting (default hopefully) that would go straight to text editing. If one actually wants to draw a bunch of text boxes before editing, they could change the setting. Or, here is an idea, turn on Caps Lock and the Sticky Tool feature gets turned on. Anyway, now I hit 'T', draw a box, double-click it, switch to the Text tab in Properties. I think a couple of steps could be eliminated. I can understand one wanting to draw a box and then punch in exact values to position and size the box, however, none of these value fields are automatically activated, so one still has to click in a field to enter the values. Here is how I think it might work:
- Type 'T' for text box
- Draw box
- Cursor starts blinking
- Start typing or Command-I for Get Text
or
Hit a keyboard shortcut (command-?) to enter the Text tab of Properties and have the Font field highlight
- Type first couple of characters of a font name or tab to field desired and enter values
• Keyboard shortcuts could be added to get to other settings.
Examples:
Command-, and . were always used to increase or decrease font size
Command-; and ' were always used to adjust leading
Command-[ and ] for tracking
The goal is to do as much from the keyboard as possible. Taking hands off the keyboard, finding the mouse and then locating the pointer all takes time and effort.
Editing shortcuts:
Arrow key left or right moves insertion point one character.
Option arrow moves by word
Command by line
Hold down shift key at the same time and the movement of the insertion point will select text.
Arrow up or down moves one line
Option arrow by paragraph
Command arrow by story
Shift key selects text
Note: Command-arrow seems to work, however, option does not.
Double-click a word to select it
Triple-click to select sentence
Quadruple-click to select story.
Note: I can only double-click to select a word. The other clicks don't work.
• I wonder if having an item tool and a content tool might be a solution. Option-click any drawing tool and it would stay active when drawing boxes, otherwise, after drawing a box the content tool automatically activates and text control features automatically become available. [Oops, I just realized that there is a content tool. It is near the other end of the tool bar. I am wondering if, due to a relationship with the Select Item tool, it might be better to have it at the other end of the tools?
• Another feature I think would be useful is to, when moving boxes, be able to click and hold a second or two before dragging to get live display of the text or image. This would work for resizing a box. For example, click-hold-drag the bottom of a text box to see exactly when the text goes bust (into overflow). Is there a fit box to text depth? When building a page for a newspaper or newsletter, for example, the headline is in a separate box so it can span more than one column. You want the depth of the box to be where the leading ends. Then it sits on top of the body copy box with the columns and the page has clean geometry. You know then that the space between the headline and the body copy is the same as the setting for the leading on the headline. I hope that makes sense.
I'm not sure why the Transform features are set up the way they are, but as I think about it, I'll bet it might make sense once I try it a few times.
I must have done something along the way. I can't move my insertion point using the arrow keys anymore. Also, I can hit 'T' and that works, but 'C' and 'Z' no longer work. Some work and some don't. In fact, I can't use my keyboard to enter anything in a field. What gives?
Note: I relaunched Scribus and now things work again. It must have been some sort of transient error.
Don't worry, this is complicated stuff. QuarkXPress had so many little quirks that we called it QuirkXPress. I don't think people realize just how difficult fonts, typography and typesetting really is, never mind the rest of the job. Being able to do it properly and utilize all the features of modern font files, like hinting, etc. is not at all simple.
**** Special not here ****
I prepared this reply over several hours. Just before I hit Post, I decided to copy all my text to the clipboard. That was a fortunate decision for us all. The system logged me out and when I logged back on, my message was gone!!! I can't recall using a system that allows you to work even when the system has kicked you off without notice. I can't say I have ever seen a login screen that asks you for your time limit. How do I know how long I am going to be?