Why do I get the Save As dialog box every time I try to save my document?

If you’re seeing the Save As dialog box every time you save your document, the document is saved in 3.3 format. Because saving your file in 3.3 format removes most of the QuarkXPress 4 features, XPress won’t save it in the earlier format unless you tell it to. It’s annoying to have to use the Save As dialog box each time you save, but it would be far more annoying if you accidentally saved a file in 3.3 format when you didn’t mean to.

You can save yourself the hassle, by saving your document in 4.0 format (choose 4.0 from the Format popup menu in the Save As dialog box).

Why can’t I open my TIFF files anymore?

Previous versions of QuarkXPress could inherently read TIFFs saved with LZW compression (this form of compression is very good for images that have a lot of flat areas of color, like screen captures). However, now in version 4 you have to have the LZW Filter XTension loaded in order to read and print this file format. Sometimes this XTension gets thrown out or turned off (placed in the Disabled XTensions folder). When you use XTension Manager or reinstall the XTension, your TIFF files should be okay again.

How do I change the margin guides on my page?

To change your margin guides or to change the number of column guides, select Master Guides from the Page menu. However, there’s a trick here: This feature is only available when you’re looking at a master page. If you have more than one master page in your document, you will have to change the margin guides for each one independently.

Why does XPress use Black instead of my chosen text highlight color?

You may notice that when you select text in a text box sometimes it selects it with your operating system's highlight color, and sometimes it just uses Black. The difference? It uses black when your text box has a Background color set to None (when it's transparent). Sorry, there doesn't seem to be any way to change this.

Is it bad to set the background color of my text box to None?

A rumor has been flying that you shouldn't set the background of a text box to None because it'll take much longer to print. Some people say that it takes longer because there's more "hidden data," and others say it's because XPress has to build a clipping path around each and every character. Both of these are simply and totally wrong. The only difference between text boxes that have a background of None and those that have an opaque background is that XPress doesn't draw a white box behind the text first.

And while it is true that a text boxes with a background of None may take very slightly longer to display on screen, you probably won't notice a difference unless you're working on an old Mac IIsi.

The moral of the story is: Don't worry about it!