Quark 5 to 4 backsaving - applescripting

[harofreak00]

hey guys,

joined this forum just for a single question, but ill probably end up having more.

i just started at a new printing business, and when i first got here, they were running a G4 and G3, with OS9. i helped them get somewhat up to date, and we have 1 G5 now, and another on the way. i am in love with it, and they are scared to death of it. (im 19, they are 40's). anywho, since they dont wanna do the switch, i have to do everything. so far my only issue is opening our archive of Quark files. we have backup of about 12,000 Quark 4 and 5 files, but i want to switch to InDesign CS. i have found that i can only convert Quark 4 files, and they have been saving as Quark 5 for over a year. I need to figure out a way to batch all the Quark 5 files back to version 4. im pretty sure i will need an applescript, but i dont really know what im doing with that. if i could have any pointers at all it would be greatly appreciated.

[matmac]

Hi harofreak00,

Can't give you the applescript, but I would suggest you take a look at:

1. the Macscripter website. It has an extensive forum of AS users, one of which might be able to help you!

2. On the Quark applescript forum if found this post on back saving from v6 to v4.



matmac

[harofreak00]

thank you very much...i will be researching both of those links

[Joe]

Originally Posted by harofreak00

and we have 1 G5 now, and another on the way. i am in love with it, and they are scared to death of it. (im 19, they are 40's).

WOW! In their 40's huh? :lol: Might I ask what they are scared to death of? I'm 49 and need to know if I should be scared of my G5.

[clod]

I searched all the applescript sites for the exact same thing a while back, and ended up writing my own (edited from an existing script). You can drag individual files or folders of files to the icon and it will open them in Quark 5 and resave them as version 4 . It runs fine on my Mac and several others, but on one Mac in particular it would stop after the first file and I have yet to figure out why.

Anyhoo, copy the text below into script editor, complie and save. You can edit this script to save version 5 files out of Quark 6 as well...the "QuarkXPress?" needs to be replaced with just "QuarkXPress" (as the name appears on the application icon) then change "Vers 40" to "Vers 50". Oh yeah, make sure you have only Quark 5 running before using it (or only Quark 6 if warranted) Let me know if it works for you...

Quark 5to4
______________


display dialog "Drag files or folders to be processed here"

on open these_items

repeat with i from 1 to the count of these_items
set this_item to (item i of these_items)
set the item_info to info for this_item
if folder of the item_info is true then
process_folder(this_item)
else if (alias of the item_info is false) then
my process_item(this_item)
end if
end repeat
end open


on process_folder(this_folder)
set these_items to list folder this_folder without invisibles
repeat with i from 1 to the count of these_items
set this_item to alias ((this_folder as text) & (item i of these_items))
set the item_info to info for this_item
if folder of the item_info is true then
process_folder(this_item)
else if (alias of the item_info is false) then
my process_item(this_item)
end if
end repeat
end process_folder


on process_item(this_item)
tell application "Finder"
open item this_item
end tell
tell application "QuarkXPress?"
activate
save document 1 version vers 40


close document 1 saving no

end tell

end process_item

beep

[gig0]

I have a question.

First of all, why would you save 12,000 documents to an older Quark version and run the risk of issues with formatting problems, text reflow and then compounding that risk by converting it to an entirely different page layout application? I'm pretty sure just about all of us have run into these types problems when saving back to an older version alone.

Why not just let the older files run their course of becoming obsolete and start the new department policy using fresh IDCS files, which will pay off in due time?

And by going through the effort of mass converting documents just because many of us prefer using a specific application while the original documents worked absolutely fine before is redundant.
Sorry, I just don't see the benefits outweighing the risk here.


And I had similar experiences a few times working with "older fellas" (heh) or "people set in their ways" and I can tell you that in all cases a gradual transition to newer software was a lot less stressful on them which also resulted in fewer errors. It made things easier for me too because I wasn't being bombarded with questions all at once. These people love IDCS now and prefer using that over Quark.


I guess that's more than one question but I'm just curious. We avoid 'back saving' documents like the plague over here and may do it only in odd circumstances.

[clod]

In my case, the script was simply a way of allowing some of our operators working with Quark 4 to work on a file created created in Quark 6. One of our clients made the switch to OS10 and Quark 6 before all our operators could be upgraded the same. Quark 6 won't save back to vers 4, therefore I created two scripts, 6to5 and 5to4...couldn't make a single script that worked. Now that everyone here is working in Quark 6 or InD, we don't really have a need for the script anymore.

[harofreak00]

in response to gig0:

in the shop that i work for, we get 10 previous jobs to 1 new job. It is a super small town and new customers are hard to come by. quark 4 running on the G3 just isnt cutting it anymore. Yes, the problems could get ugly, but we have to start somewhere. Anyways, thats why I am a type setter, to change all that.

I am yet to use that script, but thank you VERY much for offering it.

[gig0]

just an fyi, you can run legacy apps in OSX on that G5 just as good as OS 9. Once you've resolved issues with the font libraries you should be good to go. We're running just about 100% OS X here and the only reason some old computers have OS 9 is because of adb hardware dongles.

I'm just trying to save you from an early retirement because of stress :wink:

[harofreak00]

what do you mean by legacy?

i have the 9.2 disc on the way so i can play with classic