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It seems like QuarkXpress has been the dominant layout program for professional designers since paper was invented. Granted this is an exaggeration of course, but for Adobe their supremacy is a painful reminder that they have yet to dominate this area of graphic design software. Whenever one company creates a niche in the computer world you can guarantee there will be several aggressive contenders waiting in the wings. So far Quark has been able to hold down the fort and keep the crown. Even with their supremacy a given, Adobe has created three programs to compete, Pagemaker 7, Framemaker 7 and relatively recently, Indesign 2. Even with these three impressive programs, QuarkXpress still reigns supreme.
Part of the reason for Quark’s dominance has as much to do with solid design as a confirmed user base that is not really geared towards the constant flood of change that dominates the digital divide. Print Publishers and professional designers are governed by a totally different set of givens than purely web oriented designers. The environment of the print world and the digital are not "that" close. Any product that attempts to serve both faces the limitations of both.
Version 5 of QuarkXpress was clearly created with the idea of providing print designers with web enabling tools. The foundation of Xpress has been as a solid print design workhorse. It has always been clear, solid and decidedly user friendly. It afforded everyone a clean interface with a minimum of clutter and fuss. It had a clear direct focus. As a result of that focus, they had a strong hold on the print design community. Now they have attempted to address the needs of users who want to transfer their print creations to the web without the need for yet another application.
The fundamental problem with this approach is that Quark is trying to merge two entirely different working worlds into one platform that was not created initially with this type of flexibility in mind. Deciding to merge the two has turned Quark into a print based layout program with some web abilities that do not offer users the abilities they need, or want. The process of translating a print document created in QuarkXpress into a web one demands literally recreating the entire document in a new window and format. Plus, editing and moving between files is made complex and ultimately disappointing.
Because Quark is not a full fledged web application in the manner of Dreamweaver or Go Live, users demanding more sophisticated features are going to be less than satisfied. For those with minimal needs, and don’t mind the rather awkward process of translating a layout from one format to the next, or do not need to, then this may seem less onerous. For me, the addition of web components in Quark as it now stands is both ill conceived and decidedly incomplete.
It is a given that Quark has taken on an awesome burden. The complexities of print and the limitations of HTML do not lend themselves well to any kind of merger. Things are not made any easier by the "yet to be standardized" XML. As promising as it is, the format has yet to be implemented widely and could very well turn into a pipe dream that runs dry as something new emerges. While Xpress has embraced XML as a future hope, it seems premature at this point to see it as truly viable format until more support has been gathered.
Even with that hope lingering, Quark’s solution to offering web capabilities is simply not what anyone would want. Ideally, a Quark document could be created in the "what you see is what you get" manner that can, and should, be easily translated to HTML without having to start from scratch with a new design. Had they really thought about the way designers and publishers work, QuarkXpress could have been an even greater workhorse.
Looking past the shortcomings of its new web abilities, Quark is still an excellent page layout program. Considering its user base, tools and all out simplicity in format, it remains a powerful, strong application in spite of its new features. For those that thought the new version would be a radical revision, be prepared to see Quark 5 look amazing like its predecessor. The only difference being the new web features.
The trend of adding more and more features to existing applications has also afflicted Quark. It seems that software makers are compelled to add new features in an effort to justify new product. More than anything some of these supposedly useful features become just so many useless bells and whistles. Rather than making computing easier, they sometimes make it that much more frustrating. While it was to be expected that Quark would produce new software, I don’t think anyone had any idea that it would add a slew of new web features that are "nice," but hardly capable of fulfilling the needs of designers and publishers with little time for playing around with underpowered features.
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