For the recent Amsterdam InDesign User Group meeting, Markzware was going to donate a Q2ID (QuarkXPress to Adobe InDesign conversion Plug-in), but that would be too logical. So this time we got Gabriel Powell, Chairman of the Netherlands InDesign User Group,  a FlightCheck Professional v6.5, which can preflight 50+ file formats, as a stand-alone preflight and packaging tool, including Adobe Illustrator, PDF and of course InDesign. And the winner was… drum-roll please:

Peter van der Zon
Mediacollege Amsterdam
docent GV
(graphic arts teacher)

To learn more about what they discussed at that meeting and for future events about Adobe InDesign in Holland, see:
http://www.indesignusergroup.com/chapters/amsterdam/

They also offer a very informative and handy publication for their Dutch members:

“Het nIDug Magazine is het eerste digitale magazine dat gewijd is aan InDesign en de bloeiende gemeenschap van InDesign professionals in Nederland.”

InDesign Dutch Forum:

http://www.indesignusergroup.nl/forum/punbb/

Markzware is know for it’s invention of preflighting and of course the stand-alone application FlightCheck Professional. Markzware is also very popular for our easy-to-use desktop publishing conversion Plugins, XTensions and applications. Here is a small overview:

Q2ID – QuarkXPress to Adobe InDesign – 199 – Macintosh/Windows
A great Plug-in for any Adobe InDesign user. With one click, open your QuarkXPress documents right within Adobe InDesign; the complete layout, ready to edit and use! Adobe CS4 Plugin or CS3.

ID2Q - InDesign to Quark XTension – 199 – Macintosh/Windows
A great tool for any QuarkXPress users, as there is a growing number of InDesign files. With one click, open your InDesign documents right within Quark; the complete layout, ready to edit and use!

PUB2ID – Microsoft Publisher to Adobe InDesign – 199  – Macintosh/Windows
A CS3 or CS4 plugin which makes getting MSPub files into InDesign simple as can be!

MarkzTools 8 – Recovers bad Quark files – 199 – Macintosh
An XTension QuarkXPress 8 (Quark 7 version also available.) which can keep your files in good order, allow you to down-save to a lower version and can most amazingly fix or recover bad or corrupted Quark files, most of the time!  Read more... (347 words, 1 image, estimated 1:23 mins reading time)

ID2Q und / oder Q2ID…

Q2ID v4 (QuarkXPress zu Adobe InDesign)

Mit Unterstützung von CS4 und QuarkXPress 8:

Markzware veröffentlichte kürzlich Q2ID v4 (199 Euro), das jetzt auch als Plug-in für Adobe InDesign CS4 erhältlich ist und mit einem Klick alle Versionen von QuarkXPress konvertiert! Upgrades für berechtigte aktuelle Anwender finden Sie unter:
http://markzware.com/q2id

—> +++ Dateikonvertierung +++ <—

ID2Q v4 (InDesign zu Quark)

JETZT ebenfalls lieferbar!

Für diejenigen, die eine Konvertierung in die andere Richtung benötigen, hat Markzware gerade eine neue Version des ID2Q v4 XTension-Moduls (199 Euro) herausgebracht. Dieses funktioniert jetzt auch mit QuarkXPress 8 und konvertiert alle Versionen von Adobe InDesign – auch CS4! Siehe:
http://markzware.com/id2q

COMING SOON – PageZephyr!

Resellers in Deutschland:
http://www.markzware.com/resellers/europe/germany/

Resellers in CH:
http://www.markzware.com/resellers/europe/switzerland/

Resellers in AT:
http://www.markzware.com/resellers/europe/austria/

Deutsche Distributor:

ComLine GmbH
Main Office
Am Oxer 33
D-24955 Harrislee

Tel: 0461 / 773 03 30
Fax: 0461 / 773 03 90
info@comline-shop.de
http://www.comline-shop.de

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Markzware auf Twitter:
Eng: http://twitter.com/Markzware
Deu: http://twitter.com/Markzware_DE

MarkzwareTV auf YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/markzwareTV

Markzware Group auf Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/70725

Markzware Blog:
http://www.markzware.com/blogs  Read more... (184 words, estimated 44 secs reading time)

Since ICANN, approved the use of non-Latin characters in domain names today, I thought we would stick on the Internet side with this post. Jörg Oyen, the publishing, Adobe and Quark QPS expert friend of ours over in Germany at Oyen.de, sent me a rather ominous Instant message on Skype the other day, “Do you like balls”? he asked. For some reason, I thought, “oh, must be Google Balls” for it sounds very Googlish (sp?) No, he meant Tagul balls or Tagul meta clouds. Here, you can see Jörg’s meta ball from his site here:

Here is the Markzware meta data cloud (no mystery here):

Beware! This Markzware cloud is not complete and this is limitation of Tagul only getting the first 350 keywords or something to that effect. We see FlightCheck in there, but no Q2ID or ID2Q, our popular Quark-to-InDesign and the other way around as well, conversion tools.

Want to see how we made this? Watch the video here, for good control over your meta data, keywords and general SEO is very important for graphic designers, publishers and printers alike (Yes, print-shops included!):

“Content is free. Formats are not” is the article’s title from cnet. Now, this strays away from purely printing, although content in the digital printing world and certainly the publishing sector faces a similar fate:

“Content may be free, but the format in which we buy it certainly is not. As Apple, Google, Red Hat, and others increasingly demonstrate, consumers and enterprises are happy to pay for “free” when packaged in convenient formats that add value to digital goods.
….
All of these (re)purchases strike me that the media world may have problems, but they are mostly of discovering convenient formats in which to deliver content. Formats that suggest, and sometimes demand, payment.”
….
Good content is a necessary precondition to getting paid, but it’s not going to be reason we pay anymore. That reason for payment is the format in which the content is delivered.
Perhaps it’s always been that way, but the physicality of the delivery mechanisms confused us: we were buying the paper but thought we were buying the news.”
Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10369471-16.html  Read more... (348 words, estimated 1:24 mins reading time)

We at Markzware have done countless FlightCheck Professional and Q2ID (Quark to InDesign) or ID2Q (Adobe InDesign to QuarkXpress) live presentations. Generally, like most truly behind their computer software, it is best to give the audience a live taste of how the software behaves in a true workflow setting. Yes, I have had my share of bad software demonstrations, which is why this video is all the more funny for me and perhaps for you as well:

I HAVE DECIDED TO DELETE THIS VIDEO FROM WITHIN THIS POST. IT IS STILL LINKED BELOW, BUT AFTER SEEING THE ENTIRE THING (LESSON LEARNED) IT DAWNED ON ME THAT THIS MAY BE OFFENSIVE TO CHRISTIANS OR THOSE WHOM LOST LOVED ONES TO CANCER. SORRY.

GRRF – The Last Lecture from Lumalin Productions on Vimeo.

Whether you are a graphic designer, print production publisher or printer, this GRFF – The Last Lecture video may have you on the print production floor (For you have seen your share of software demo’s, that is for sure!)

Ms. Klier, a valued customer of ours from  tür3))) Design in Austria and a layout designer, said this to me in an email: “I bought ID2Q and also Q2ID and still love to use it nearly every day – it is absolutely helpful!” Curious about how they use both QuarkXPress and Adobe InDesign and need to convert jobs to and from both, I asked for more details, which I include below in both English and German:

We are a graphic design firm, specializing in catalogue production for electrical installations and we receive layouts from different customers, some in Xpress some InDesign. We need to bring them together, mostly to an ID-product but also sometimes to Xpress- depending on the program, in which the greater part of pages were created.

Q2ID (XPress to InDesign) and ID2Q (InDesign to XPress) have become necessary parts in the daily design workflow. It would be impossible, to cope with a job like this, with a big amount of tables and charts within the layout – in just a minute!

Both software programs are a good value!!

Karin Klier
tür3))) design
Vienna

German Version — — —  Read more... (291 words, estimated 1:10 mins reading time)

Email Tuesdays. Here was a good question, which we often get for our Quark to InDesign Adobe Plugin, Q2ID:

On Aug 31, 2009, at 7:00 PM, Xxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxco.uk wrote:

=======================================================

Question::
Hello, I am currently considering buying Q2ID but I need to know if it will convert Multiple Language Quark Documents. I look forward to your reply.
Thanks James.

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Hello James,

Yes indeed, Q2ID will convert multiple language files (good question though, we get asked that often.). We only have some issue with 2-byte character languages (Chinese, Arabic, etc), but even then, the layout converts fine. So yes, Q2ID will open any western language document and convert the entire design layout for you with one click! (As will Publisher to InDesign- PUB2ID and ID2Q or InDesign to Quark, the  other way around, btw.)
See:
http://www.markzware.com/q2id

Cc’ed is our partner in the UK whom can assist with your order or any other questions, XChnage International.

Friendly Regards,
David Dilling
Markzware Europe

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FlightCheck v6.5 with CS4 and QuarkXPress 8 support – NOW SHIPPING!
http://www.markzware.com/flightcheck_professional  Read more... (268 words, estimated 1:04 mins reading time)

“It’s features like that in all their programs that make Markzware one of my favorite go-to companies for problem solving programs, Xtensions and Plug-ins.”
Here was a very nice product testimonial we got submitted through the web site last night. It was such a great Markzware customer review, that I felt obligated to share it in full…

August 27, 2009 3:17:33 AM GMT+02:00
Name: Roy Behymer
Company: IPC Graphics
Country: USA
Website: www.ipcstl.com

Testimonial:
I have used many Markzware products over the years: Flightcheck Designer; Pub2ID; Q2ID; Markztools; Pict Attributes XT; PM2Q. There’s a reason I keep coming back and why I’ve purchased and recommended so many of their products, they simply work, which helps to make my work more simple. Even as we’ve progressed from one design program to another, dropping some along the way, Markzware’s products have always helped us, no matter which professional design program we use. Even their discontinued products are still useful for us. PM2Q still allows us to extract embedded files at full resolution from legacy PageMaker files when InDesign’s built-in conversion of PageMaker results in low resolution embedded files. It’s features like that in all their programs that make Markzware one of my favorite go-to companies for problem solving programs, Xtensions and Plug-ins.  Read more... (397 words, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

Free data conversion services look good on the shiny web-page surface, but I recommend you try these out before jumping up and down. For instance, check this out. Some of my colleagues forwarded me this and asked me to post our findings. They tried http://www.pdftoword.com/ and both got back a message similar to this:

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From: “PDF to Word” <no-reply@mail.pdftoword.com>
Subject: [PDF to Word] Failed to convert Xxxxxxxxxxxx.pdf
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Now, this could be just a fluke, but the point is you don’t get nothing for free. As the Dutch often say about making purchases (loosely translated), “A cheap purchase is a bad purchase.” (Well, anyway, rhymes in Dutch, really!)

And on that investment note, this one was rather interesting:
http://forums.adobe.com/message/2162894  Read more... (360 words, estimated 1:26 mins reading time)