Release: Xtags 4/6.2.1 for XPress 4/6

November 19, 2004 by cpr

This release fixes a few bugs and adds new features such as full XPress index tag support and more.

Changes

• Get Text with Xtags… no longer hangs with a spinning beachball in QuarkXPress 6.5. (Mac OS only)
• The Get Text with Xtags… dialog now allows the selection of any file with a valid filename extension (e.g., “.txt” and “.xtg”). (Mac OS only)
• Xtags now supports input and output of the full QuarkXPress index tags (XO, XC and XI) when Quark’s Index XTension is present. (Without the Index XTension present and the Index palette open, all index tags will be lost on input or output with Xtags, the same as with Quark’s XPress Tags filter.)

  For full index tag documentation, see the appendix in the file Guide to QuarkXPress.pdf (which lives in the appropriate language sub-folder of the Documents folder in the XPress 6.x folder).

  Known issue: If you select text containing index entries (index tags), and import or paste over it with Xtags (Get Text with Xtags… or Paste Xtags Text), the index database gets confused. This appears to be a generic problem with all XTensions, not just Xtags, and we’re pursuing it with Quark. One work-around appears to be to close and re-open the Index palette, though that seems to also lose index tag information (and not just with Xtags–it also happens with their own XPress Tags support). Another is to manually delete what you’re replacing, before importing or pasting with Xtags.

• Xtags now properly handles the save text as xtags AppleScript event in the presence of long file names or file names containing Unicode characters. (Mac OS X (6.x) only)
• Xtags once again supports a simple pathname string as a direct argument in AppleScript, working around a change in the Quark system-level coersion handlers. Previously, you’d have to coerce the pathname string with alias. (Mac OS X (6.x) only)
• Xtags now properly outputs text with both paragraph and character style set to “No style”. (Before, it would crash.) (Mac OS only)
• Xtags now supports long file names (greater than 31 characters in length) under Mac OS X. (Mac OS X (6.x) only)
• Xtags now imports pictures with full (72 dpi) preview resolution rather than half-resolution (36 dpi).
• Xtags now supports an Upgrade button in its About… dialog that allows you to re-enter your new serial without hunting around the file system for the old serial storage and deleting it by hand, if you need to upgrade your serial to increase the number of simultaneous copies, etc.
• Xtags now handles multiple text inset values in text box creation properly (it was working before, but the XPress UI wasn’t being notified, so you couldn’t see the settings interactively). (6.x only)
• Xtags now allows the full 2″ maximum on frame corner radii, instead of a 1″ maximum.
• Xtags now properly labels the import option Delete file after successful import rather than …after successful input, in both its preference and Get Text with Xtags… dialogs.