Xtags for XPress

Release: Xtags 3.7 for QuarkXPress 8/9

Changes

Adds a new C code letter for the sizing specs field of an anchored or as-anchored box tag’s width and height parameters. C may not be combined with S or R but may be used with F to size the box’s contents to the column as well. Sizing-to-column is allowed for anchored box tags, as-anchored box tags (unanchored, but with both x and y parameters left empty), and line tags.

Unlike S, which is only allowed to shrink a box, C is only allowed to grow a box to fit its column. Thus, its initial size is its minimum size, and what was the minimum (4th) parameter therefore becomes the box’s maximum size.

For example, <&pb((32pt,CF),(128,S),,,,,,,,,C,,,,,,,”p1234.jpg”)> would create an anchored frame with its width sized to the insertion point’s column, with the picture’s width scaled to the frame’s (and therefore the column’s) width, and with the frame’s height set to that of the picture.
Removes Xcatalog’s link marker guard characters (for Xcatalog’s enhanced text link editability feature) from copied/saved tagged text so that tags for catalog links aren’t littered with unnecessary <\z>‘s.
Fixes a problem where OpenType features tags (o(...)) were being generated with incorrect feature names.

Changes

Added support for relative line sizing, so that relatively-placed lines can now be sized relative to their referenced boxes. Lines always shrink (they never grow) towards their start point (the referenced corner) and their direction is always maintained.
Added support for UNIX/POSIX-style paths (like /Volumes/Macintosh HD/Users/Chris/Pictures/Rhubarb.jpg). Note that, for backward compatibility with MacOS/HFS-style paths, a path must contain at least one slash (/) and may contain no colons (:) to be treated as a POSIX-style path. (Mac only)
Fixed a long-standing problem where a relatively-placed box could, in rare situations, be sized incorrectly.
Restored support for the box lock flag.

Changes

Fixed support for universal serial numbers.

Notes

With this release, the QuarkXPress 9 XTension now requires a valid Xtags 9 serial number. If you have a license for a version of Xtags prior to 9, please contact Em Sales to obtain an upgrade serial number. Em Software’s upgrade policies and free upgrade cut-off dates can be found here.

Older versions of Xtags for QuarkXPress 6/7 can be downloaded from the Xtags 6/7/8.3.4 Release page. While we will no longer fix problems in or add features to these older versions, we will continue to support folks using them.

Changes

Added native support for hyperlinks and text anchors. The new tags are:
- &Ys marks the start of a text hyperlink
- &Ye(hyperlink name, page number, style name) ends a text hyperlink and creates a page reference
- &Ye(hyperlink name, URL, style name) ends a text link and creates a URL reference
- &Ye(hyperlink name, #anchor name, style name) ends a text link and creates an anchor reference
- &Yb(relative box ref, ...same as any of &Ye parameters)
- &Ya"anchor name" drops a named text anchor
To put these into use, we would recommend creating some hyperlinks in a scratch document, generating their tags via Edit > Copy with Xtags and then modifying those tags to meet your needs.

The <&Ya"foo">quick brown fox jumps <&Ys>over<&Ye("foo hyperlink", "#foo")> the lazy dog. will generate a text anchor named “foo”, then create a hyperlink named “foo hyperlink” to that anchor on the text “over”. (Note that text anchor references must be prefaced with a #.)

The quick brown fox jumps <&Ys>over<&Ye(, "http://emsoftware.com")> the lazy dog. will create an anonymous URL hyperlink on the text “over” to our website.
Added support for multiple imports into named boxes via a new "@xtagsimport" parameter modifier. (Server only)

Our import parameter mimics the QuarkXPress Server Modifier XT’s "@dataimport" format as

<box-name> "&xtagsimport=" (<text> | "file:" <path>)

where <box-name> is an extant text box <text> is literal tagged text and <path> is either a platform-style absolute path (like "file:c:\foo\bar.txt" or "file:Macintosh HD:foo:bar.txt") or a doc pool-relative partial path using either platform or URL/Unix separators (like "file:xtags:bar.txt" and "file:xtags/bar.txt").

This format allows for multiple imports, like

http://localhost:8080/jpeg/testdoc.qxp?tb1@xtagsimport=SomeText&tb2@xtagsimport=file:foo.xtg&reporterrors=1

Note that hard errors (like <box-name> not found, <box-name> not a text box, <path> not found or import failure) are ignored. (Which also mimics the Modifier XT, and allows all imports to complete as best they can.)
Addressed a performance issue in Q7/8 so that text containing anchored boxes now imports just about as quickly as it does in Q4/6.
Made Pro features (table generation, namely) available in Demo mode.

Changes at 6/7/8.3.3.5 release

At-signs (@) appearing in, for example, e-mail addresses, within the body of a paragraph are no longer treated specially, so long as there is an end-of-paragraph or some other tag-like character(s) (less-than (<), greater-than (>), and at-sign (@)) between it and the next (if any) colon (:). Meaning, so long as an @ doesn’t look like a paragraph style application, it will not be treated as one. For example, in
```
@pstyle1:Some text and abc@mnop.xyz: Some more text.
```
Xtags will attempt to apply the paragraph style mnop.xyz, because the @mnop.xyz: looks like a paragraph style application, and there are no other special characters intervening. However, in
```
@pstyle1:Some text and abc@mnop.xyz. Some more text.
```
only pstyle1 will be applied since the use of the @ no longer looks like a style application (there’s no colon between it and the end of the paragraph). Previously, all of the text from the @ to the end of the paragraph would be lost.

If a colon must follow the e-mail address, as in the first example above, then you’ll need to continue escaping the at-sign, as in:
```
@pstyle1:Some text and abc<\@>mnop.xyz: Some more text.
```
unless there are other intervening characters that make it clear this is not a style application, as in:
```
@pstyle1:Some text and abc@mnop.xyz. Some more text.<\c>@pstyle2:In a new column now.
```

Changes at 6/7/8.3.3.4 release

Fixed a problem where text beneath a placed unanchored box wasn’t always properly reflowing around the placed box.

Changes at 6/7/8.3.3.3 release

Fixed a problem in QuarkXPress 8 where the missing picture’s proxy image (the red question mark) wasn’t being scaled properly to fit its box.
Fixed a problem where the filenames of placed missing pictures could sometimes show up in QuarkXPress 8′s Picture Usage dialog with trailing garbage characters.
Changed the handling of missing pictures in QuarkXPress 8 because references to missing pictures were sometimes being lost and displayed as “No Disk File” in the Utilities > Usage > Pictures dialog.
In versions prior to QuarkXPress 8, a reference to a missing picture was always retained exactly as it was specified.

Now, on Mac OS, a full path to a missing picture ("Macintosh HD:Users:me:Pictures:cat.jpg", for example) is retained only if each folder in the path actually exists. If any folder of a full path is missing, or the missing picture is specified with a partial path (like "cat.jpg" or ":Pictures:cat.jpg"), then just the picture’s filename ("cat.jpg") is retained, relative to either the current document, if the document has ever been saved, or to the user’s home folder.

On Windows, a full path to a missing picture is always retained. Partial/relative paths to missing pictures are retained as being relative to either the current document, if the document has ever been saved, or to the user’s home folder.
Corrected the positions of the Xtags copy and paste menu items in QuarkXPress 8.1 for Mac OS X.

Changes at 6/7/8.3.3.2 release

Fixed a problem where overwriting an existing file while saving tagged text was sometimes leaving extra characters after the newly exported tagged text.
Fixed a problem where *h tags (for H&J) weren’t always being output correctly in QuarkXPress 7 and 8.
Fixed a problem where attempting to import a missing picture could produce a filename with trailing garbage characters in the Picture Usage dialog. (QuarkXPress 8, Mac OS X only)

Changes at 6/7/8.3.3.1 release

Fixed a problem with importing hidden text A(...) tags, where the resulting hidden text could be incorrect.

Changes at 6/7/8.3.3 release

Added support for QuarkXPress Server 8.0.
Added support for <\z>, QuarkXPress 7′s undocumented zero-width space special character tag.
Added support for Xcatalog’s new Unicode-supporting links. If you plan on exporting links created using Xcatalog 6/7/8.3.2 or later, or Xdata 6/7/8.4.1 or later, then you must upgrade to this Xtags release.
Fixed a problem that would sometimes cause a mysterious crash after placing an anchored table. (Pro only)
Fixed a problem where pictures specified with paths relative to the document template’s folder weren’t being found in QuarkXPress Server 7.
Additional text file types entered in the Xtags Preferences dialog are now also used as filename extensions in Mac OS X. (They’ve always been treated as filename extensions in Windows.)

Changes at 6/7/8.3.2.4 release

Fixed a problem where batch control (.xbc) files were being ignored but still deleted.

Changes at 6/7/8.3.2.3 release

Added support for importing and pasting tagged text into a text frame selected with the item tool. Note that, since there’s no insertion point with the item tool, all imported/pasted text is simply appended to any existing content.
Fixed a problem where placing an anchored table box could cause the document to become unstable. (Pro only)
Worked around an issue where text wasn’t always flowing properly after applying a master page. (XPress 7+ Mac OS X only)
On export, tags for empty and non-file-based pictures boxes are now generated with an empty file name rather than No Disk File. (XPress 7+ only)
Batch folders, which were inadvertently disabled for the 6/7/8.3.2 release, have been re-enabled.
Reverted the default encoding of text exported via our “classic” XT-to-XT API to always be platform-native (MacRoman/WinLatin) so that existing callers aren’t suddenly confronted with UTF-8-encoded text in Q7+ environments. To export text in newer encodings (like UTF-8), recompile your XTension to use our newer export API.
The plug-in’s registration information is now properly retained for all users. Previously, Windows XP and Vista users whose accounts had limited privileges were being asked for a serial number each time they started QuarkXPress.

Changes at 6/7/8.3.2.2 release

Shrinking boxes to fit their content now works again. (We broke it back in 6/7.3.2.)
The @$p tag, which restores the current paragraph’s character style, now works properly in QuarkXPress 8.0.
Fixed a tables problem introduced in 6-8.3.2.1 where setting any grid attribute (color, weight, style, etc.) of the bottom-most edge of the table might cause a crash. (Pro only)
Fixed a tables problem where fixed-width columns were ignoring their applied numeric alignment. (Pro only)
Fixed a tables problem where hitting an auto-sized column gutter’s width limit would cause the resulting table to be too narrow. (Pro only)

Changes at 6/7/8.3.2.1 release

Improved the speed at which tables containing custom gridline weights are created. (Xtags Pro)
Added XPressMath XT support under QuarkXPress 7.x and QuarkXPress Server 7.x.
Fixed a problem where some rows’ heights were getting switched when creating a table containing header rows and enough additional rows to cause the table to break into two or more fragments. (Xtags Pro)
Fixed a problem which was preventing Xtags Server 7 from loading in QuarkXPress Server 7 for Mac OS X.
Fixed a problem where placing an unanchored box with no current box selection would cause Xtags Server 7 to crash.

Changes at 6/7/8.3.2 release

Added support for QuarkXPress 8.0.
The Xtags Server 7 XTension now requires QuarkXPress Server 7.2 or greater. (This change allows us to provide a Universal binary on Mac OS rather than a PPC-only XTension.)
Flush left/centered column headers are now positioned (centered) independently from the column’s body rows. (Xtags Pro only)
Table gutters and margins may now be suppressed on a cell-by-cell basis (handy for table titles and column headers that require preset insets) by specifying a zero-width gutter in the cell’s start tag, like &tcs(:0,...). (Xtags Pro only)
Fixed a number of issues which were resulting in incorrectly-sized cells and tables. (Xtags Pro only)
Fixed a problem where a mix of proportionally- and auto-sized columns could result in either mis-sized columns or a crash. (Xtags Pro only)
Refined table sizing so that gutters more tightly bound the right edge of columns containing wrapped text. (Pro only)
Fixed a problem with left- and right-aligned numerical columns where text to the right of the number’s decimal point would overset in some situations. (Pro only)
Fixed a problem that would give spanning cells (like headers) whose content’s width was very close to that of the spanned columns’ an extra line’s worth of height. (Pro only)
Fixed a compatibility issue with KyTek’s XMLxt where numerically-aligned cells containing hidden XML were sometimes overflowing. (Pro only)
Lowered the floor of proportional table sizes from 1 to 0.01 (1/100th) to provide an easier way to specify a right margin that sizes itself relative to the table’s inner gutters. For example, the long-ish ([6]1*,1*:2*|C,1*:2*|C), which specifies a fixed left margin and a right margin that’s half the width of the inner gutters, can now be shortened to ([6].5*,1*|C,1*|C). (Pro only)
Added support for table margins and column gutters. (Pro only)
Margin and gutter widths may be specified in the table tag’s column-widths parameter. The left margin qualifier takes the form [<width>, the right margin qualifier the form ]<width> and gutters the form :<width>. If not provided, Xtags defaults to flexible, equal gutters and right margin and a zero-width left margin (or [0:1*]1* in Xtags parlance).

Margin and gutter qualifiers may be given in one of three forms:
- as a fixed measurement, like :2p (for a gutter 2 picas wide) or [0 (for a zero-width left margin);
- as a range limited width of the form min-width?max-width where the gutter is allowed to size flexibly and equally (it's treated as a 1* internally) until either limit is reached; or,
- as a proportional width, denoted with a * suffix like []1*:2*, for example, which would cause Xtags to create a table whose inside gutters get twice as much space as its outside gutters. (Where []1* is simply shorthand for [1*]1* .)
There are two ways to include margin and gutter qualifiers in the column-widths parameter. If all column widths, alignments and gutter widths are the same such that the sub-list form of the parameter is unnecessary, then the sizing qualifiers can be placed directly in the column-widths parameter. For example,
```
<&tsu(,,C80%,,4,,[]1*:2*)>
```
creates a four column unanchored table that’s 80% of the containing column’s width with all inside gutters twice the width of the outside margins.
```
<&tsu(,,C80%,,4,,[]0)>
```
creates a similar table but with fixed, zero-width outside gutters and the default flexible, equal inside gutters. Lastly,
```
<&tsu(,,C80%,,4,,[1p:1p?2p]1*)>
```
imposes a fixed 1p left margin, flexible and equal inside gutters limited to a width of 2p and a right margin that will obtain all remaining extra space.

If control over the individual column widths is needed such that the sub-list form of the column-widths parameter is required, then each column width in the list may include a gutter qualifier to be applied to the space between that column and the next column. For example,
```
<&tsu(,,C80%,,3,,(:2p,:1p,:20p))>
```
makes the first gutter’s width (the space between columns one and two) 2p and the second gutter’s width 1p. The left and right margin qualifiers, if needed, can appear anywhere in the sub-list. The tag
```
<&tsu(,,C80%,,3,([6pt:1*,|R:2p,|R]6pt))>
```
creates a three column table with 6pt fixed margins, a 2p fixed gutter between the numerically right-aligned second and third columns and a gutter between the first two columns that obtains all remaining extra space.
Improved the speed of placing unanchored boxes (text boxes in particular) by up to a factor of ten. (Which brings us back close to QuarkXPress 4 speeds).
Fixed a problem where shrinking a text box to fit the width of its contents could shrink the box too much if its text ended with a paragraph marker.
Fixed a problem where shrinking a text box to fit the width of its contents would fail if any paragraph rules were present.
Fixed a long-standing problem which was preventing errors in style definitions from being reported.
Added support for mixed column alignments within a single table column. Any column alignment type may now be specified in a table cell start tag’s width parameter and will locally override any alignment specified for the entire column. A cell of a particular alignment type (left, center, right, alphabetic or none) will be so aligned with all other cells of the same alignment type in that same column. (Pro only)
The alphabetic table column format now handles long and multi-line entries properly. (Pro only)
Fixed a long-standing problem which could leave columns artificially wide if they contained more than one cell each containing more than a single word. (Pro only)
Fixed a problem which prevented tables from being anchored with ascent alignment or an offset baseline. (Pro only)
Fixed a problem with tables where specifying a lock or maintain geometry flag would prevent the table from autosizing. (Pro only)
Fixed a problem where representing a missing picture with our proxy image (the red ‘?’) would cause the scaling and positioning settings specified in the &pb, &pbu or &pbu2 tag to be lost.
Added the alphabetic A column format, where the content of all cells in the column is aligned on the left and adjusted so that the widest entry is centered within the column. Alphabetically-aligned cells are, by default, indented at least 6 points relative to left-aligned content. This indent may be specified by following the A key-letter with an indentation value, like “|A8″, which would increase the indent to 8 points, or “|A0″, which would remove the indent and make the alphabetic column indistinguishable from a left-aligned column. (Pro only)
Added the “default” $ column format, which removes all Xtags-imposed formatting and lets each cell’s current style sheet determine the content’s alignment. This format can also be specified in &tcs’s width parameter (<&tcs(|$)>) in order to disable a column’s format for a particular cell. (Pro only)
Text boxes lacking a closing &te and tables lacking a closing &tse no longer cause Xtags to crash XPress. Such non-terminated box tags are now automatically closed.
Fixed a problem where creating a table or non-rectangular box could sometimes cause a crash.
Fixed a problem where creating an unanchored, positioned but default-sized box (like <&tbu(36,36)>) would fail claiming the width parameter was “out of range”.
Added “version 2″ anchored text, picture and none box tag variants (&tb2, &pb2 and &nb2) to support rotation, skew, flags and runaround on anchored boxes.
```
(width, height, angle, skew, flags, anchored alignment,  item runaround,
frame width...)
```
For example, the tag
```
<&nb2(1",1",45,,,B,n)>
```
would insert a content-less anchored box at a 45 degree angle to the
baseline with no text wrap.
The content of a text box may now be exported even if the box is a shape that’s not currently supported (like polygonal, bezier or a text-on-a-path). The Copy Xtags Text/Save Xtags Text… menu items are no longer disabled for the latter cases when in content mode.)
On output, anchored and grouped boxes with an unsupported box shape are now silently ignored, instead of causing an error which aborted the export.
Fixed an output problem where group members not actually touching the group’s page were being output with incorrect box offsets.
In QuarkXPress 7, anchored box tags in which a runaround type is either not specified or is not specifiable (such as in the case of the &tb, &pb and &nb tags) now create an anchored box with item runaround if any text outset is specified or an anchored box with the default runaround (as obtained from the corresponding tool’s preferences) if the text outset parameter is empty.
In QuarkXPress 6, a Unicode character specified by <\#U+nnnn> is now converted to the corresponding ASCII (MacRoman/WinLatin) character or substituted with a “?” if no conversion is available.
Fixed problems with MacOS HFS-style partial path handling where using one or more parent directory references (like :: or :..:) in a picture’s path could prevent Xtags from finding the picture.
Fixed some text box shrink-to-fit issues where hyphenated words, forced line ends and paragraph rules could prevent the text box from shrinking properly.

Added the &nb and &nbu2 tags to represent “none” (content-less) boxes. The anchored none box tag takes the form

<&nb(width, height, anchored alignment,
frame width, frame color, frame shade, frame style,
background color, background shade, text outset, box name)>

while the unanchored none box tag has the form

<&nbu2(x, y, width, height, box angle, box skew, flags,
item runaround, frame width, frame color, frame shade, frame style,
background color, background shade, text outset, box name, layer name)>

Addressed a QuarkXPress 7/Mac OS issue where tagged text put on the clipboard by Copy Xtags Text wasn’t available to non-Unicode applications like FileMaker Pro 9. Xtags 7 now copies both Unicode and non-Unicode (MacRoman) tags to the clipboard so that tagged text can be pasted into these older or non-Unicode-enabled applications.
Fixed a problem where translation files with Unix-style line ends weren’t being read properly.
Added the ability to Copy/Save selections containing multiple (ungrouped) items and a singly-selected item that belongs to a group.
When shrinking a text box to fit its content’s width, Xtags now stops at a width that is just large enough to prevent words from breaking/hyphenating.
Fixed a problem that could cause the display of an incorrect serial number in our QuarkXPress 6/Windows XTensions’ About dialogs.
Added support for box background blends. A box’s background color parameter now accepts a sub-list that can specify blend-specific parameters, like:
```
(background color, blend color, blend style, blend angle)
```
where the blend style is one of "Solid" (or S for short), "Linear" (L), "Mid-Linear" (M), "Rectangular" (R), "Diamond" (D), "Circular" (C) or "Full Circular" (F).

If not otherwise specified, a blend’s style defaults to Linear, its blend color defaults to K (black) and its angle defaults to 0.

Similarly, the background shade parameter now accepts a sub-list that can specify a blend’s shade and opacity.
```
(background shade, background opacity, blend shade, blend opacity)
```
If not otherwise specified, a blend’s shade and opacity both default to 100%.

A non-empty setting for one or more blend-specific parameters will cause the box to contain a blend. For example, <&pbu2(1",1",2",2",,,,,,,,,,(,,50))>, which simply specifies a blend shade of 50%, is enough to set a linear blend from 100% white to 50% black on the box.

Note that opacity parameters are ignored in QuarkXPress 6.
Added support for shrinking text boxes width-wise. For example,
```
<&tb(160?,20)>The quick brown fox.<&te>
```
will produce a 20pt high anchored box whose width fits the contained text exactly while
```
<&tb(160?,20?)>The quick brown fox.<&te>
```
will produce an anchored box that tightly bounds its contained text both width-wise and height-wise.
Added support for shrinking multi-column text boxes height-wise. For example,
```
<&tbu2(72,72,100,120?,,,,,,,,,,,,2)>The quick brown fox.<&te>
```
now produces a two-column text box whose height fits the contained text.
Added support for box background and frame opacity in QuarkXPress 7. The background shade parameter now accepts a sub-list of the form
```
(background shade, background opacity, blend shade, blend opacity)
```
while another expanded sub-list for the frame shade parameter lets you specify the frame and gap opacities of the form:
```
(frame shade, frame gap shade, frame opacity, frame gap opacity)
```
where missing opacities and shades default to 100%.

For example,
```
<&pbu2(1",1",2",2",,,,,8,K,(,,50),"Solid")>
```
creates a picture box with an 8pt black 50% opaque frame. Likewise,
```
<&pbu2(1",1",2",2",,,,,8,(K,M),(,,50,20),"Dotted")>
```
creates a picture box with an 8pt frame, where the black dots are 50% opaque and the magenta gaps are 20% opaque.
Fixed missing picture path preservation in QuarkXPress 7. A non-conditional missing picture file will result in a picture box containing a big red question mark proxy image along with a corresponding entry in the Picture Usage dialog.
Missing picture errors now display the full path of the missing picture’s file.
Worked around a QuarkXPress 7 limitation where it would refuse to import a picture when specified with a relative path and a filename containing a / (forward slash). For example, the import of ":picfolders:photo1/24/04.tif" now works as expected. (Mac OS only)
A box being sized relative to a referenced box is now limited to its original size (meaning, it can only shrink). For example, the sequence
```
<&pbu2(24B,24,1296?,812?)><&tbu2((0,BL,1),9,(360,R,0,240),120)>caption<&te>
```
will generate a caption box that’s the width of the fit-to-contents picture box, but only up to 360 points.
Fixed a problem where overwriting an existing file while saving tagged text was sometimes leaving garbage characters after the newly exported tagged text.
Numerical character escapes like <\#nnn> now always result in a character from either the MacRoman or the WinLatin character set depending upon the current <en> setting and the OS. For <e0>, a numerical escape results in a character from the MacRoman character set. For <e1>, a WinLatin character is produced. If no e tag is present or if the e tag specifies an encoding other than 0 or 1 then
the resulting character is from MacRoman on Mac OS and WinLatin on Windows.
Fixed a problem where pasting with Xtags could result in multiple “invalid tag” errors.
Fixed general file type and creator issues in QuarkXPress 7 on Intel-based Mac OS machines that were preventing some text files from being selectable in the Import Text with Xtags… dialog. (XPress 7, Mac OS, Intel only)
Added support for blends in table, table row and table cell tags. Each tag’s background color and background shade parameters have been expanded just like the picture and text box tags. (See above.) Setting a blend on a table will produce a single blend for the entire table that will only be visible behind transparent cells (cells with None background color or those with opacities other than 100%). Setting a blend with a
table row tag will set the specified blend on each cell in that row. Setting a blend with a table cell tag will apply the blend to only that cell. (Pro only)
Added support for table cell background opacity in QuarkXPress 7. (See normal box background opacity, above.) (Pro only)
Added support for table gridline opacity in QuarkXPress 7. For tags explicitly versioned with a <v7.00> tag or for non-versioned tags being imported into QuarkXPress 7, a gridline opacities parameter has been inserted after the existing gridline shades parameter and a gridgap opacities parameter has been inserted after the existing gridgap shades parameter in both the &ts (table start) and the &trs (table row start) tags. (Pro only)
Fixed general table creation instabilities in QuarkXPress 7/Windows. (Pro only)
Fixed a problem where inserting an anchored table could cause a crash. (Pro only)
Fixed a byte order problem in xt2xtags.h which was
preventing other XTensions from finding Xtags on Intel-based Macs. Note that this change requires any QuarkXPress 7-level XTensions using our xt2xtags API to be recompiled with the new header. (OEM/VAR only)
When generating v7.0 tags, Xtags no longer puts a language parameter in the *p(...) tag since that attribute is now a character-level setting in QuarkXPress 7 (represented by the new <n#> tag). When reading v7 tags, a language parameter, if present, is silently ignored so as not to break the reading of tags generated by previous versions of Xtags 7. (QXP7 only)
Text insets for table cells are now set correctly in QXP7. (Pro only, QXP7 only)
Worked around a QuarkXPress limitation which caused the creation of breaking tables with hundreds of rows to fail with the message “Box is too large to fit on the spread”. (Pro only)
Fixed a problem where the height of rows in breaking tables containing hundreds of rows would be incorrect if the weight of the table’s horizontal gridlines was greater than zero. (Pro only)
Fixed a glitch where exported PDF page numbers were off by one.
Fixed the Euro character conversion between the MacRoman (<\#219>) and WinLatin (<\#128>) character encodings.
Corrected a problem in the XT-to-XT API which was causing any import using the XT2XTAGS_IMPORT_USEPREFERENCES flag to fail with paramErr (-50).
The XMLxt, Autopage and XPressMath XTensions are now invoked (if present) for each created text box.
Fixed a problem where single word cells were wrapping their contents. A cell’s text inset is no longer ignored when a cell’s smallest “nonbreaking” width is used. (Pro only)
Worked around QuarkXPress limitations in order to fully support breaking tables. Tables large enough to break upon creation (hundreds of rows) will now import correctly. (Pro only)
Added checks for breaking tables which ensure that all headers, footers and at least one body row (or group of spanned rows) will fit within the specified break height. (Pro only)
Tables are now forcibly shrunk in order to attain a table width specified within the table’s start tag, even if doing so would cause cells’ contents to wrap or hyphenate. (Pro only)
Table cells with very wide content will no longer blow out their columns’ widths. Rather than use such content’s natural width, we now use its minimum “non-breaking” width to help determine an appropriate width for the column. (Pro only)
When measuring text width for column alignment and autosizing, Xtags now ignores the nominal width QuarkXPress tacks on to lines ending with line break characters. (Pro only)
Added auto-center (which attempts to center a column’s content in a balanced way), auto-left and auto-right column alignment options. Use |C for center, |L for left and |R for right in the column widths parameter. (Pro only)
Fixed a problem where a column’s alignment wasn’t being accounted for when auto-sizing a column’s width. (Pro only)
The content of table cells in aligned columns are no longer allowed to wrap. (Pro only)

Changes

Fixed a problem that was causing character style references to fail. Both the <@...> tag and paragraph style definitions using named character styles now work properly. (QXP6/Mac only)
Changed text generated via Save Text with Xtags in QuarkXPress 6.1/Mac to once again use MacOS-style line ends (CRs) rather than Unix-style line ends (LFs). This addresses an issue where simple text produced by Xtags could not be read back in using Quark’s own Get Text… (which doesn’t handle Unix line ends correctly).
Fixed a minor problem where 6.x-style serials were being forgotten in some situations and needed to be reentered on each restart.
Removed arbitrary limitations from the number of rows a table tag may specify. (Pro only)
Fixed a tables problem when auto-sizing a row’s height. A single line of text appearing immediately after a paragraph’s rule is no longer clipped/overset by a too-small row height. (Pro only)
Added support to <&tcs(...)> for a W flag which tells Xtags to allow that cell’s contents to wrap. (In other words, the W flag tells Xtags to skip that cell when auto-sizing the column’s width.) (Pro only)
Fixed a tables problem where a table tag’s interior vertical gridline properties were not being applied. (Pro only)
Added support for $ as a gridline parameter value which indicates that the default value (from the table tool’s preferences) be used for that position. (Pro only)

Changes at Xtags for QuarkXPress 6/7.3.1 release

Boxes being placed under a relatively-referenced box are now put behind the referenced box before being auto-sized so that the shrink-to-contents will account for any runaround on the referenced box. Prior to this change, auto-sized text boxes were becoming overset when sent behind a referenced box.
Added support for additional picture box runaround types including auto image, embedded path, alpha channel, non-white areas, same as clipping and picture bounds. The expanded runaround parameter of an unanchored picture box tag takes the form of a sub-list:
```
..., (type, flags, index, noise, smoothness, threshold),...
```
where type is one of n (none), i (item), a (auto image), e (embedded path), c (alpha channel), w (non-white areas), s (same as clipping), b (picture bounds). flags may specify any (or none) of the following: I (invert), E (include inner edges), O (let path extend outside the box). index specifies the embedded path or alpha channel when one of those types is selected. noise, smoothness and
threshold specify the tolerance settings for auto image, alpha channel and non-white runaround.
Fixed a problem where text box background colors other than “None” were being ignored.
Fixed a problem where the last character of any Copy-as-Xtags‘d text was being ignored when pasted (via Edit > Paste) back into a text box. (Windows, QXP7 only)
Added table gridlines. (Pro only)

Changes at Xtags for QuarkXPress 6/7.3.0.3 release

Boxes may now be placed relative to a named box that is anywhere in the document, on the current spread or on the current page. If the named box is not found, the box creation fails and an error is generated. If the name is prefaced with a question mark, the creation is considered conditional: if the named box is not found then no box is created and no error is reported.
Where the named box is looked for can be specified by setting a new parameter in the relative reference sub-list to ‘D’ (to search the document’s layout), ‘S’ (to search the current spread) or ‘P’ (to limit the search to the current page). The default search location is the current spread.

E.g., <&pbu2((0,TL,"sidebar"),0,...)> looks for a box named “sidebar” on the current spread and places this new box on top of it. If “sidebar” isn’t found, the tag fails and an error is generated.

E.g., <&pbu2((0,TL,"?sidebar"),0,...)> also looks for a box named “sidebar”, but if one can’t be found no error is issued.

E.g., <&tbu2((0,TL,"background",D),0,(1,R,0),(1,R,0),...)> searches the document for a box named “background” and creates a same-sized text box on top of it.

Note that you can name a box on a master page and then position boxes on each document page relative to where the named master page box lies. This could be handy when tagged elements’ placements need to be determined by the layout rather than the tags. For example, something like
```
<&tbu2((0,TL,"?left-page-footer",P),0,(1,R,0),(1,R,0),...)>
```
might be used to place a left-page footer only on left pages. Since no box named “left-page-footer” would exist on the right page master, the tag would silently fail on right-side pages.
Added a new unanchored box flag, ‘U’, which may be used to send a relatively placed box behind (under) its referenced box. If both the U and K (send to back) flags are specified for a relatively-placed box, the K flags will be ignored.
For example, the tags sequence:
```
<&tbu2((0,TL,"fancybox",S),0,(1,R,0),(4",S,6),0,0,,...)>Some text.<&tbe>
<&pbu2((0,TL,1),0,(1,R,0),(1,R,0),0,0,U,...)>
```
would create a text box aligned with (and as wide as) the current spread’s “fancybox”, shrink the box’s height to its contents, then slide a same-sized picture box in behind that text box to provide a background graphic.
Tags referencing H&J and L&F names with accented characters are now saved/copied correctly to Unicode. Previously, accented characters were being converted to unknown or invalid Unicode code points. (7.3.0.3 only)
Fixed a problem introduced in 6/7.3.0.2 which caused table start tag parameters above the 7th (text-align/runaround) to fail.
Attempting to use a table tag without a Pro serial number now produces a “table tags require a Pro serial” error message rather than the previous builds’ “unknown” error.

Changes at Xtags for QuarkXPress 6/7.3.0.2 release

Added PDF page and cropping support to the picture box tags &pb, &pbu and &pbu2). The picture path name parameter may now specify a sub-list with the format
```
(filename, page number, cropping style)
```
where filename is the absolute or relative path to the PDF, page number is the number of the page to be imported and cropping style is the type of the cropping method to be applied.

Page numbers are integers in the range 1 … n where n is the number of the last page in the PDF. Values larger than n are clamped to n while a value smaller than 1 will cause both the page and cropping pameters to be ignored. If not otherwise specified, Xtags will load the the PDF’s first page.

The cropping style parameter may be 0 (media), 1 (contents, the default), 2 (bleed) or 3 (trim).

Xtags will silently ignore the use of these parameters on non-PDF images.

This is an Xtags 7-only feature. Versions of Xtags prior to 7.3.0.2 will silently ignore these parameters.
Fixed a problem where incorrect style names were being generated when exporting tagged text from some documents.
Improved the handling of shrink-to-fit baseline-aligned anchored boxes where a negative baseline offset places the box either partially or completely below the baseline. Previously, the box would always maintain the negative offset by shrinking towards its bottom edge. Now, if the offset is large enough to place the pre-sized box completely below the baseline, then the resized box will shrink
towards the baseline–meaning the gap between the baseline and the box’s top, if any, will be maintained. For example, the tags
```
<*R><&tb(30,(3",S),(b,-3"-6pt))>@:Sidebar: some interesting fluff<&te>
```
will now create an anchored text box sized to its contents hanging 6 points below the baseline. (Before it would shrink towards the box’s bottom, leaving a variably-sized gap between the baseline and the box’s top.) In this case, the box is pushed to the right edge of the page in its own paragraph such that it floats next to the next paragraph like a sidebar.

If the negative offset would leave the pre-sized anchored box straddling the baseline, then the resized box will now shrink about the baseline proportionally. For
example, the tag
```
<&pb((40,S),(40,S),(b,-20),,,,,,,,,,,,,,,"photo.jpg")>
```
will create an anchored picture box vertically centered on the baseline. After being fit to the image, the resized box will now remain centered on the baseline.
Changed the minimum allowable baseline-alignment offset from -.5″ to -11″. The maximum allowable offset remains +11.5″.
Unanchored lines created with <&lbu> may now be sent-to-back using the K flag.
Fixed a problem where index entries made via <XI> in a text box created with <&tb> or <&tbu> were being placed in the main story rather than in the created box’s story.
The angle field of the &tsu() tag is no longer ignored, allowing unanchored tables to be rotated. (Xtags Pro only)

Changes at Xtags for QuarkXPress 6/7.3 release

Fixed a box placement problem where attempting to place an unanchored box relative to the most-recently-anchored box (e.g. &lt&pbu2((1,TL,0),0,...)>) would instead place the unanchored box relative to the most-recently-created unanchored box, if there was one, or issue the error “Xtags error: No such previous box: tag &pb[u2]” if not.
Added support for Unicode characters in box and layer names, though QuarkXPress’s UI won’t always handle them properly. (7.x only)
Added support for text encodings–including Unicode–and direct-from-memory imports and exports to the XTensions interface. (7.x only)
Fixed a problem where Xtags would issue an error for every box placed on the “Default” layer.
Fixed a minor memory leak that could occur with each import.
Added support for the <$$>, <a$> and <a$$> tags. For a description of these tags see QuarkXPress Help / Appendices / Using XPress Tags / Defining and Applying Style Sheets / Additional XPress Tags for Style Sheets.
Added support for 7.0′s opacity parameter in the paragraph rules tags. For tags marked as <v7.00> or later, the 5th (new) parameter in the *ra‘s and *rb‘s parameter list now specifies the opacity of the rule. (7.x only)
Added support for 7.0′s new character-based language tag <n>. (7.x only)
Added support for 7.0′s new ligatures tag <G>. (7.x only)
Added support for 7.0′s OpenType Feature tag <o(...)>. (7.x only)
Added support for Quark’s new XPress Tags 7.0 space character tags, including: en <\e>, 3-per-em <\5>, 4-per-em <\$>, 6-per-em <\^>, figure <\8>, thin <\[>, hair <\{> and word joiner <\j>. (7.x only)
Added support for Quark’s new XPress Tags 7.0 em dash character tag <\_>. In <v7.00> sources, this tag replaces <\m> as the em dash tag (see <\m>’s new 7.0 meaning, below). (7.x only)
The <\f> and <\m> tags now conform to Quark’s XPress Tags specification and produce a flex space and an em space, respectively, when imported from a <v7.00> source rather than an en space an a em dash as they do in prior tag versions. (7.x only)
Xtags 7.x now supports the import and export of tagged text encoded as Mac Roman, Windows Latin, UTF-8 or UTF-16.
On import, UTF-16-encoded files are always automatically detected and any <e> tag in the file is ignored. UTF-8 files must either begin with a byte order mark (BOM) or contain the tag <e9>. Otherwise, the file is assumed to be encoded as Mac Roman (on Mac OS) or Windows Latin (on Windows) unless an <e> tag specifies otherwise (<e0> for Mac Roman or <e1> for Windows Latin). (7.x only)

On export, the desired encoding may be specified in the Save Text as Xtags dialog’s new Encoding: pop-up menu. If a given Unicode character does not translate to the specified encoding (Mac Roman or Windows Latin), it will be converted to a <\#Uxxxx>. (7.x only)
Xtags now supports Unicode translation files and macros using Unicode characters. (7.x only)
The Apple Script interface now accepts and generates Unicode strings. (7.x only)
Boxes created by Xtags now take their default values from the document’s appropriate tool defaults: the rectangular text box tool for <&tb>, <&tbu> and <&tbu2> tags and the rectangular picture box tool for the <&pb> and <&pbu> tags.
Added the <p%> tag to support text opacity in QuarkXPress 7. For example,
```
The <p50>ghostly<p$> owl
```
would import with the word “ghostly” with its opacity set to 50%. (7.x only)
Accented characters in color, style, language, line, frame, H&J and layer names are now translated to and from Unicode correctly. (7.x only)
We’ve added support for the <\#Uxxxx> (and <\#U+xxxx>) tag that was first introduced in our Xtags for InDesign product. With it, any character may be specified using its Unicode code point value. For example, an em-dash may be specified as <\#U2014> or <\#U+2014>.
What was File > Get Text with Xtags… has been changed to File > Import Text with Xtags… and what was File &gt Save Text with Xtags… has been changed to File > Save Text with Xtags… to better align with QuarkXPress 7′s updated terminology. (7.x only)
Requests to shrink anchored text boxes to fit their contents are now attempted in additional situations (including when overset) in order to address a problem where some imports were seeing a portion of their anchored text boxes left unshrunk for no apparent reason.

Added support for layers so that unanchored boxes may now be created on a specific document layer using the tag’s layer name parameter. From the Xtags User’s Guide:

<&tbu2(x, y, width, height, box angle, box skew, flags,
item runaround, frame width, frame color, frame shade,
frame style, background color, background shade,
text outset, columns, gutter, text inset, baseline offset,
baseline minimum, vertical alignment, interparagraph maximum,
box name, layer name)>...Text to be placed in the box,
typically containing other tags...<&te>

and

<&pbu2(x, y, width, height, box angle, box skew, flags,
item runaround, frame width, frame color, frame shade,
frame style, background color, background shade, text outset,
placement, picture scale x, picture scale y,
picture offset x, picture offset y, picture angle, picture skew,
picture path name, picture type, box name, layer name)>

If the specified layer does not yet exist, it is created with default color and visibility. If the layer cannot be created, the box is placed on the currently selected (active) layer.

Fixed a problem where a crash could occur upon File > Get Text with Xtags… if the initial folder contained a file lacking a Classic designation (‘TEXT’, for example) and having a name ending with a period. (Mac OS X only)
The character resulting from a numeric escape tag is now governed by the <e> tag and mapped into the current platform’s character set. So a Mac-based numeric escape tag like <\#17> now properly generates the TM symbol on Windows rather than a superscripted “a” character.
When exporting Xtags text, a missing font’s name is now included in the <f"..."> tag rather than being substituted with a question mark. For example, Xtags will now generate <f"Minion Pro Med"> rather than <f"?"> for the missing font Minion Pro Medium.
Fixed an export problem which was occasionally preventing the generation of certain character attributes applied to text within a “none”-style paragraph with no character style applied. For example, the <cW> tag might not be generated for a span of white text within a “none”-style paragraph with no character style applied.
Reverting to the paragraph style’s character attributes via <@$p> no longer applies a random font/size/color if the paragraph style references a character style for its character attributes.
Fixed a problem where loading a picture using a relative path of the form ":a folder:a picture file with a very long name.tif" or ":a picture file with a very long name.tif" would result in a file not found error even if the picture file actually existed. (Mac OS only)
Worked around a problem caused by non-conforming XTensions (like PSD Import) where loading a picture was causing Xtags to emit incorrect text in its error messages
A problem in QuarkXPress 6 where the document’s home folder is “forgotten” when the document was opened on a network volume has been worked around (the problem arises because XPress now copies a remote documents to a local version before working on it). Now Xtags will find pictures relative to the document’s folder even when that document is on a network volume. (Documents on a local volume were never a problem.)
When importing tags from a file, both the document’s folder and the source file’s folder will be searched when looking for pictures specified using a relative path, in that order. (What’s new is searching in the source file’s folder.)
Exporting a group containing a box with an illegal shape no longer crashes. Instead, the export will fail with error code -27 (unsupported box shape).
Translation tables now allow the vertical tab escape \v to represent character 11 ( <\#11>).
The “No style” character style is now used instead of “Normal” when a reverting to a “No style”-styled paragraph’s default character style using the <@$p> tag.
The correct tags are now generated after a <@$p> tag is emitted within a “No style”-styled paragraph.

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.