QuarkXPress 7: Tickets Rule!

You have learned about Job Jackets and Tickets during the past few issues of this newsletter (if you missed the articles, search my BLOG using the Newsletter Archive link at the left of this newsletter.

Next week you will learn how to create a project based on a Job Ticket. That’s going to be great. But what happens if a team-member starts a QuarkXPress project based on a ticket but then fails to follow several corporate specifications such as page count, page size, the use of color, etc? QuarkXPress provides the ability to Evaluate a Layout. The evaluation is based on Rules you create and attach to the ticket. If a team member does not follow the set of rules, the problems will be flagged when the project is evaluated. Very cool!

Each Rule you create can test one thing. For example, a Rule might state the lines drawn in the project cannot contain arrowheads. Or that a text box can never use background colors. The type of rules you can create goes on and on.

Here is the general process for creating Rules:

• Create Rules and add them to a Rule Set.
• Associate the Rule Set with a layout via a Ticket.
• Evaluate the layout to ensure the rules are followed.

Below are the steps I took recently when creating a Rule for a Job Jacket that would look for lines using arrowheads and flag them as a violation of our style guide. (I don’t really have anything against arrowheads… I used arrowheads for demonstration purposes only.)

Create a Rule

1. Display the Job Jackets Manager
2. Select a Job Jacket
3. Select Rules from the Resources list
4. Click the New Item button from the bottom panel

   The Edit Rule dialog box appears.

5. Change the Name (in this example, I changed the name to NoArrowheads)
6. Select Lines from the Subject list
7. Select Arrowhead from the Condition list



8. Click Next

   The Search for all Lines where screen appears. This is where I defined what I wanted QuarkXPress to look for.

9. Select Right Arrow from the list



10. Click Next

    The final screen allowed me to set the Rule’s Policy and the instructions team members will see should they not follow the rule.

11. Select Prohibited from the Policy list
12. In the Instructions field, type Sorry, but we do not like right arrows to be used in the newsletter. Please remove the arrowhead from all lines.




13. Click Finish

Next I wanted to create a Rule Set that used my new Rule.

Create a Rule Set

1. With the Job Jacket selected, select Rule Sets from the Resources list
2. Click New Item from the bottom panel

   The Edit Rule Set dialog box appeared.

3. Change the name to NewsletterRules
4. Select NoArrowheads from the Available column
5. Click the Include button



6. Click OK



7. Click Save

Add the Rule Set to a Ticket

1. Dispaly the Job Jackets Manager, select a Job Jacket (4 Page Newsletter in the picture below) and a Ticket (Create Our Newsletter in the picture below).
2. Select Layouts (1) from the Resources list
3. Click the plus sign (or triangle if you’re on a Mac) next to Layout 1 (in the Layouts panel)
4. Scroll down and select Rule Sets
   
5. Select NewsletterRules from the Rule Sets list



6. Click Save

Next week: It will all come together when you learn to create a project based of a Job Jacket, use a Ticket and then use the Rule you just created to Evaluate the project.

Want to learn more about QuarkXPress 7? Click here.