Print Buyers Online.com: Using Older Versions of Applications Alongside Newer Versions

Using Older Versions of Applications Alongside Newer Versions

Answered by Jay Nelson, Editor and Publisher, Design Tools Monthly

Question:
With QuarkXPress 8 now shipping, I want to install it but don't want to lose my ability to use QuarkXPress 7. Do you know if QuarkXPress 7 and QuarkXPress 8 can co-exist on my drive, so that I can use them alternately?

Answer:
Absolutely. We do it here all day long. Any properly written application allows previous versions to remain active on your system. Just remember that your system now considers the latest version of the application to be the one that should open all documents created by any version of that application.

In other words, if you double-click a QuarkXPress document in the Finder or Windows Explorer, QuarkXPress 8 will open it. To open a QuarkXPress 7 document in QuarkXPress 7, you'll have to either drag it onto the QuarkXPress 7 icon, or open it from within QuarkXPress 7 (using File> Open).

(The same is true for Adobe applications, and any other properly written application.)

And here's a useful tip: in each version of QuarkXPress, Quark “improved" the way it handles text. By default, each new version respects the way earlier documents were created, so that (theoretically) nothing changes when you open it in the new version, and it maintains perfect backward compatibility with the older version. However, if you want your document to use the new, improved text engine, follow this procedure:

In QuarkXPress, choose File> Open, then hold down the Control and Option or Alt key while clicking the button labeled "Open". This tells QuarkXPress to rebuild the document and throw out any leftover junk from previous versions. (Note: holding the Control and Option/Alt key while double-clicking a document will not perform this cleanup. Only using the File> Open dialog box will do it.)

This question was answered by Jay Nelson, Publisher & Editor, Design Tools Monthly. We love DTM's tips and advice and think you will, too. For a free sample PRINTED issue, contact Design Tools Monthly at 303-543-8400, e-mail info@design-tools.com, or go to their website: www.design-tools.com.