Quark - Rearranging Pages

[g]

Hi there,
I am creating a brochure of about 70 pages. Each page is the same based on the Master. Its alphabetical but due to new additions/subtractions/alterations i need to rearrange the pages. its currently set as a double page spread so the pages line up next to each other. however, if i drag and drop to where i want the page to move to, everything else reshuffles and the Master is re-applied to each of the 70 pages on top of the info that is already there. last time this happened i just went through each page and deleted the boxes that had automatically placed themselves on what was already there but ive got to be doing something very wrong and really dont want to do that again. any advice...please? comments would be very welcome

[cudaboy_71]

the trick to avoiding the reflow is using thumbnail mode.

go to 'view->thumbnails', all the pages will now display as thumbnails.

now, create a new docmument with the same page attributes (page size, facing pages, etc) and place it into thumbnail mode. in thumbnail mode you can drag whole pages rather than just its elements.

to get this working well, you need to have these two documents side by side.

back in the original document, drag a page you want to rearrange to the new blank document. doesnt matter where...the new doc is just a 'pasteboard' of sorts. note, by dragging to another document, you dont move original page causing reflow...it just copies. so everything on the original document is still as it originally was. note: you dont drag from the 'layout' pallette. in thumbnail mode you actually drag the page from the working document. you'll note that the whole page highlights in thumbnail mode and you will not be able to select separate elements...so no chance of messing up layout in this mode.

now, from the 'pasteboard' document drag the page you want to relocate NEXT to the page holding its new spot (thats a little confusing--so let me repharase: say you want the original page 4 to be located in the the original page 8's spot. you'll drag page 4 to the new doc. then drag from the new doc to the space right next to the original page 8....with me still? good)

now, when you move the original page 8 to its new location, the page 4 that was right next to it fills its spot.

you'll have to play with this a little bit to get the hang of it. there may be a better way. but, i've been doing this since version 3.1.1 and it works so well its part of how i use quark now. good luck.

[g]

Dear cudaboy, thanks for the reply, its really really appreciated. ive followed everything you said but think either im doing the last bit wrong or ive not explained best. i created the new page and that all seems like the best option. it seems understandable that i could drag the new page into place. my problem is that its an alphabetical document of companies. new companies need to keep being added as and when i receive their information back (company profile, photograph, biography etc) so, say i need to add a company beginning with T, how would i insert the new page (from the second document i created), say on the left hand page, say p.4 and make the rest shuffle up one page so that p.5 (right hand page) now goes to p.6 (left hand page) space? thanks very much for the help.

[cudaboy_71]

ahh. i see your problem now.

sad to say, i dont think there's a way out of your mess. and, here's why:

even tho you are using the same master page, your are using facing pages. so, really what you have are a master-left and a master-right. even tho they both have the same name and may look the same in your particular document, they are really quite different (even if you have them set up the same--quark has the ability to make them different; and it makes no distinction between what you want and what it can do).

so, when you add an even page (left), the page that previously occupied that postion must necessarily become odd (right) by either moving up or down in page number. thus, quark must apply the right-page style to it...it has no choice.

furthermore, what you found out so quickly, is that adding one page in the middle of your document shuffles all the pages from odd to even (and vice-versa) and quark reapplies all the masterpages, much to your chagrin.

the only real option you have at this point without creating a new document would be to add TWO pages via the 'insert pages' command so that all your exising evens and odds stay put. then, you can add your new page to the layout in one of the new blank pages. but, now you also have a blank page.

in your particular case, i have two suggestions:

1) dont lay out this document in facing pages. it sounds like your master does not vary from left to right, so setting it up in spreads serves no real purpose except as a visual cue to you as a layout artist. then, when you add pages, quark wont reapply the masters unless you actually change master pages (FYI, you threw me with the term 'reflow' which is something different completely)

2) if you, for whatever reason, must lay out the document as facing pages (maybe youve decided to put a page number to the outside of each page for example), then the easiest thing you can do is maintain each page of your document in a separate 'master document'. set this document up as facing pages and create each page as BOTH a left AND a right.

you read that right....leave page 1 blank...and beginning with the page 2-3 spread you will create the same layout on both the right and left page.

then, your *real* page 2 will be layed up on spread 4-5, and the *real* page 3 will be layed up on 6-7, etc. etc.

then, when its time to print the job, create a NEW blank document. put both documents in thumbnail view and drag over the appropriate left or right page from the 'master' document to the new document you just created.

personally, i do business directories for a living. but, i dont have to maintain them from year to year. each time i get an order for the new year's directory i start from scratch. and, i dont begin until i at least know a total page count and have at least a placeholder for a bio. otherwise, i'm in the same mess.

FYI, there is a FANTASTIC utility by emsoftware called xdata (http://www.emsoftware.com/products/xdata) that helps me out tremendously.

it enables quark to become a database publishing application. its quite a leap if you are not familiar with databases. but VERY worth the effort if you do this type of work a lot.

in a nutshell, you'd keep all your information in a database (i use access, but filemaker would work fine too). the database can store links to images, names, addresses, bios...anything that you'd type.

then, with a little massaging of xdata (there are services that will set up xdata if you do not want to) you click 'import' in quark and it lays out your whole document in a matter of seconds or minutes.

now, instead of having to spend hours rearranging pages, you simply enter the new data in your database, and hit 'import xdata' in quark and youre done.

i hope my rambling has made some sense. good luck.