Automated Workflows has announced the availability of Automator actions for use with QuarkXPress, which can be used to automate time consuming desktop publishing tasks.
Automator is the latest automation technology, developed by Apple Computer, Inc., and released with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. Designed for all levels of users, from novice to expert, Automator makes performing time consuming and repetitive tasks easy. The basic unit for automation in Automator is called an action, and each action is responsible for performing a single specific task. Using Automator’s interface, users can link actions together in infinite ways to form a complete workflow that matches their unique needs. Hundreds of actions are included with Automator for performing tasks in Apple applications and the operating system itself. This list can be expanded with actions made available by developers.
Automated Workflows provides users with the ability to extend the power of Automator with new actions that interact directly with QuarkXPress. By extending Automator, users are now able to begin automating repetitive and time consuming desktop publishing tasks that would otherwise need to be performed manually. This means being able to quickly and easily begin automating even the most complex tasks, such as catalog construction.
For example, using Automator actions available from Automated Workflows, a workflow that opens a QuarkXPress template, retrieves product IDs from a FileMaker Pro database, locates photos corresponding to those IDs in iPhoto, imports the found photos into the Quark template, retrieves product text from a FileMaker Pro database, imports the product text into the Quark template, retrieves product pricing from a FileMaker Pro database, and imports the product pricing into the Quark template, can quickly and easily be created without the need for manual processing or programming.
Automated Workflows’s actions are available for purchase, either individually, or in multi-action packs. Pricing varies based on the functionality offered, and demonstration versions of all actions are available for download. The Quark Automator actions, available today, include the following:
• Apply Quark Box Names
• Open Documents in Quark
• Place Images in Quark Document
• Place Text in Quark Document
• Retrieve Quark Box Names
• Save Quark Document
Automated Workflows also offers Automator actions for use with FileMaker Pro, InDesign, iPhoto, and Photoshop. The list of available actions will continue to be expanded as new actions are developed. Automated Workflows offers AppleScript and workflow automation consulting services to Macintosh-based businesses.
Additional information about Automated Workflows’s Automator actions here.
Adobe better get cracking.
Spotlight plugins first and foremost, with automator actions soon to follow.
It would be a shame for them to blow the lead over Quark they worked so hard to get.
Oh I don’t think there’s any worry about that….Quark sat on its ass for about 6 years straight and is paying the price now. I use InDesign everyday now after being a hardcore Quark fan for years….what year is it now, and Quark still doesn’t ship with a full-resolution image preview built in? Insane! One thing I’ll give the hosers at Quark Inc., though, you can run it on a LOW end computer. InDesign definitely sucks the processing juice.
Does anyone still use Quark?
First QXP Automator task: Relaunch QXP after frequent unexpected quits.
Second Automator task: Email Quark with complaint that their inane lack of an AppleScript file path for open documents screws up nearly every AppleScript ever written for the app.
Too little, too late for Quark. Ship is sinking.
Quark 6 – $930.00 (Quark)
Adobe CS2 Stabdard- $850.00 (Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign)
Adobe CS2 Premium – $1119.00 (Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Acrobat, GoLive)
Ever tried to build a website out of Quark 6? (shiver)
Ever had to deal with Quark on reinstalling the software because Quark 6 had corrupted itself for the fifth time in as many months? (shiver)
Ever lost access to all of your fonts because you ran the Quark updater? AND then had to reinstall AND then be accused of being reckless?
All of my Pubs accept pdfs and two of them now have Indesign.
Does anyone still use Quark?
Yes unfortunatley they do. A lot of print and pre-press bureaus still use Quark and OS9 since it costs a lot to upgrade your hardware/software for OSX when your looking at 20+ machines and peripheral drivers/hardware and also there are a lot of users who still insist on using OS9 cause “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.”
qxp is 598 on amazon, id cs 2 is 699… pays to shop around
and the upgrade is only 199 direct from quark
as for who still uses quark, check out the quarkxpress entry on wikipedia for some figures
quarkxpress has some problems… but cs 2 crashes every day without fail on my system, so there you go
I hadn’t heard that about the file path thing before… what’s the story?
QFD, QXP does not correctly return the file path of an open document. It returns the file path to the temporary file QXP uses as a proxy of the real file in the file system. There is no satisfactory workaround through QXP.
And to note: I was not comparing QXP to CS or CS2 regarding unexpected quits. I have almost as many UQs with AICS as I do with QXP, though I don’t have such problems with PSCS or IDCS.
There is one other thing to note about the difference between Quark and Adobe, though: for those who use Adobe apps at work, the Adobe license allows you to install the apps on your home computer, too (as long as they aren’t used simultaneously).