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Step Seven: Create New Master Pages

Central to the template conversion process is the rebuilding of InDesign Master Pages to match those in the existing Quark template. Like Colors and Styles, InDesign can load Master Pages from other InDesign documents, so this will only need to be done once for shared Masters.

Quark allows you to easily access Master Guide location data.

1. In the unconverted QuarkXPress template, choose Guides from the Window menu to access the Guides panel.
2. Double-click each Master Page and record the positioning of all ruler guides from the Location column.
3. Using the X/Y fields in Quark’s Measurements palette, record the positioning of all header and footer boxes.
4. In your new InDesign template, create new Master Pages using the New Master command from the Pages panel menu.
5. Make sure that rulers are currently showing in InDesign by choosing View > Show Rulers.
6. Drag ruler guides from the horizontal and vertical rulers to match the settings recorded in Quark.
7. Use the Frame tools in InDesign to create header and footer frames in approximately the same positions as in Quark.
8. Select the header and footer frames, and use the X and Y coordinates in InDesign’s Control panel to match their Quark positioning.

Step Eight: Import Text

Now that the Master Pages, Styles, Colors and Dictionary have been converted over to your new InDesign template, you can begin to add content in the form of text. Thankfully, text can be copied and pasted from QuarkXPress (without its styles) into InDesign. Then it can be formatted using the InDesign Styles you created earlier.

Text can be copied from Quark and pasted into InDesign (without its styles).

1. In your new InDesign template, and using your Master Page guides for reference, create a new text frame using the Rectangular Frame tool (or, alternatively, the Type tool).
2. In the unconverted Quark template, click-drag to select the text from an individual text box with the Text Content Tool.
3. Choose Edit > Copy (or use the keyboard shortcut Cmd-C).
4. Back in InDesign, click in the corresponding text frame with the Type tool. You should see a blinking insertion cursor inside the frame.
5. Choose Edit > Paste (or use the keyboard shortcut Cmd-V).
6. If necessary, open the Character and Paragraph Styles panels from the Type menu, and apply the appropriate Styles to your placed text.
7. Repeat steps 1-6 to import text from each text box in your uncoverted Quark template into your new InDesign template.

Stay tuned. In the next post, you will learn how to import graphics and save an InDesign template.

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Step Five: Build Colors

Since you cannot import color palettes from a Quark document into an InDesign file, you’ll need to rebuild all CMYK and Pantone colors used with InDesign’s Swatches panel. Thankfully, you’ll only have to do this once for templates that share a common palette.

Quark color palettes will need to be rebuilt in InDesign... at least once.

1. With the unconverted template file open in Quark, choose Edit > Colors and record the CMYK percentages (and/or Pantone numbers) of each color used in the template.
2. Switch to your new InDesign file, and choose New Color Swatch in the Swatches panel menu.
3. For Color Type, choose Process for CMYK colors and Spot for Pantone colors.
4. If you chose Process as the color type deselect Name With Color Value under Swatch Name, and enter the CMYK name exactly as it appeared in Quark.
5. If you chose Spot, the PMS number of the Pantone color will be added automatically.
6. For Color Mode, choose either CMYK or a Pantone library to define the mode.
7. For process builds, enter the numeric CMYK values from Quark in the text boxes next to the color sliders.
8. For spot colors, choose from the Pantone libraries in the Color Mode menu.
9. Click Add to add the swatch and define another one. Click Done when finished.

Note: To add swatches from anther InDesign template (with a common color palette), choose Load Swatches from the Swatches panel menu.

Step Six: Recreate Styles

In InDesign, Style Sheets are simply called Styles, and because they will be indispensable to the formatting of type in your new InDesign template, they must be translated from Quark. Again, this manual process will only need to be completed once for templates that use common Styles.

Style Sheets must also be recreated in InDesign (as Styles).

1. With the unconverted template open in Quark, choose Edit > Style Sheets.
2. For each Style Sheet in Quark, click on the Edit button and record all settings from the General, Formats, Tabs and Rules sections. Be sure to include whether they are Character or Paragraph Style Sheets to make the translation to InDesign go more smoothly.
3. In InDesign, choose Type > Character Styles to access both the Character and Paragraph Style panels.
4. Choose New Paragraph Style from the Paragraph Styles panel menu, or choose New Character Style from the Character Styles panel menu.
5. For Style Name, type exactly the same name as it had in Quark for your new style.
6. Enter all settings gathered from the Quark Style Sheets by choosing the corresponding categories from the left side of the New Style dialog.
7. If necessary, convert existing template fonts to new template fonts, paying close attention to styles and weights as you do so.

In our next post, we will explain how to create new Master Pages in InDesign and importing text from QuarkXPress.

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Step Three: Create a New Document in Adobe InDesign

To convert your templates from Quark to InDesign, you’ll have to essentially recreate the template pages in InDesign. Page creation begins with the basics: starting a new document, setting up pages, and positioning guides for margin and/or column alignment.

Start your new InDesign template by setting up a New Document.

1. Open Adobe InDesign, and choose File > New > Document. The New Document dialog box combines the Document Setup and the Margins And Columns dialog boxes, so that you can set up the page size, margins, and page columns all in one place. You can change these settings at any time.
2. Leave the Document Preset and Intent settings at their defaults, and make sure Number of Pages and Start Page are both set to 1.
3. Uncheck both Facing Pages (as you’ll be creating your own spreads) and Master Text Frame.
4. Enter the custom Width and Height settings you recorded in Quark earlier.
5. Enter the Column Number and Gutter settings you recorded in Quark earlier..
6. If they’re not set already, enter your Top, Bottom, Inside and Outside margins from Quark.
7. Click OK to open a new document with the settings you’ve specified.

Note: To set default layout settings for all new documents, choose File > Document Setup or Layout > Margins And Columns, and set options when no documents are open.

Step Four: Import the Auxiliary Dictionary

By default, InDesign uses Proximity dictionaries to verify spelling and to hyphenate words. Because you can’t directly import the QuarkXPress dictionaries which were used with your existing templates into InDesign, it’s important to know how to import word lists saved in a plain text file.

A Quark Auxiliary Dictionary can be imported into InDesign.

1. If necessary, hide InDesign and Quark so you can see your Desktop at the Finder level.
2. The Auxiliary Dictionary used in your previous Quark template has the extension .qud. Locate it in the Finder, and make a copy of this file.
3. Click on the copy’s file name and change its file extension to .txt.
4. Hit Return, and if a warning box appears, click the Use .txt button.
5. Back in InDesign, choose Edit > Spelling > User Dictionary.
6. In the Import User Dictionary dialog, navigate to the converted .txt file, and click on the Add to Dictionary radio button.
7. Click Open to add the Auxiliary Dictionary to your InDesign file.
8. Click Done when the dictionary is finished loading.

In the next post, you’ll discover how to rebuild colors and recreate styles.