[tiger]

I've been a quark user and never really tried InDesign since quarks just seemed to "work" for me. Anywyas I'm having a little problem... I know this must be very simple but in quark its pretty straight forward. Is there a "Link Tool" in InDesign like there is in Quark? I can't seem to find a way to link Text Boxes together. Any help is appreciated.. thanks in Advance.

[Brien]

IIRC (it's been awhile since I used InDesign), there's a little nib in the corner of the text box, and you drag it to a corresponding nib on the one you want to link it to. A line showing the link should show up.

You may need to turn on guides, etc. to see this.

[JonoMarshall]

Nibs!?!? Help is your friend:

Threading text frames:

The text in a frame can be independent of other frames, or it can flow between connected frames. To flow text between connected frames, you must first connect the frames. Connected frames can be on the same page or spread, or on another page in the document. The process of connecting text among frames is called threading text.
Each text frame contains an in port and an out port, which are used to make connections to other text frames. An empty in port or out port indicates the beginning or end of a story, respectively. An arrow in a port indicates that the frame is linked to another frame. A red plus sign (+) in an out port indicates that there is more text in the story to be placed but no more text frames in which to place it. This remaining unseen text is called overset text.

Choose View > Show Text Threads to see visual representatives of threaded frames. You can thread text frames whether or not they contain text.

Use the selection tool to click your text frame, then click the out point (bottom right) and click anywhere on another text frame to thread them, or simply click in an unoccupied space to create a new text frame for the rest of the text.

InDesign treats text muxh the same as Quark:

Use the Type tool to enter or edit text in a frame.
Use the Selection tool for general layout tasks such as positioning and sizing a frame.
Use the Direct Selection tool to alter a frame’s shape.

[KeriVit]

I have to say as I converted to InDesign, I found their "Help" to VERY useful. Moreso than any other software help. Eventually you'll get over the learning curve. It really is good to be proficient in both programs.

[art_director]

Last year I was forced to use ID CS2 for a huge project. My timeline made the learning curve baptism by fire. It was rough at first but now I seldom use Quark. The only times I do are when a client insists, which, for the record, is rare.

When CS3 came out I upgraded immediately. While I don't like having all my software under the thumb of one company I must confess Adobe did a nice job with integration.

[tiger]

Thanks everyone, I guess I was overthinking it by looking for a linking tool while its much simpler than that.

Quark is still pretty proficient in the Printing Industry, despite its high price point and Quark 7 shows some promise of better software from Quark. Indesign on the other hand looks to a brighter future, although competition is always better, in the long run it leads to better sotware and consumers end up winning.

[MacDog]

I started using InDesign back when it was still in Beta form, quickly moving my Quark documents over to ID when version 1.0 shipped. Back then, it was craptacular, but you could clearly see that it was going to begin its run taking over marketshare. With each update ID has gotten SIGNIFICANTLY better, and CS3 is just spectacular.

As an old "Quark guy" from back in the day (version 3 and 4), I can't even imagine what my day would be like if I had to use the constraining, buggy, boring, features in all the wrong places application known as Quark. About the only good thing about Quark is the multiple page size feature, but you can get that in InDesign with a relatively cheap plugin and it works perfectly.

[Chuckit]

Trying InDesign as a Quark user is like a glass of ice water for someone in Hell. Even more than iTunes on a PC.

[Odysseus]

I’m using ID most of the time to start projects these days—although if I had QX v7 I’d use it more than I do v6.5. Still, I often miss certain QX ‘productivity’ features when working in ID, for example copying formats from one paragraph to another with just two mouse-clicks, and the (sometimes cheesy but usually client-pleasing) “Cool Blends” gradients.