Preparing an online database for print publications using ASP pages
Step 1 • Step 2 • Step 3 • Step 4
Step 3: Add XPress Tags to Unformatted Page
Using the Express Tags Reference Sheet you will mark up the dynamic data with Expressage. Begin with the page that you created in Step 2. Using the following "rules" you will "mark up" the fields with tags that will identify formatting and style names for QuarkXPress.You will want to work with your print designer to find out how the layout is designed and what style names he will use for the Quakers style sheets (paragraph styles and character styles).
Some Basic XPress Tag Rules:
- The first line of the document must contain the code that identifies the file type and Quark version. Example: <v6.10><e0> (Quark's version 6.1) .
TIP: To obtain the code your version of Quark uses try exporting XPress Tags from an existing Quark document. Select some text, choose "Save Text..." from the File menu, choose XPress Tags as Format and save. Open the file in a text editor and view the code at the top of the page. - Each paragraph style is identified by @ followed by the style name and a colon. Example - @courseTitle:
- Each new paragraph style must be the first item of a line preceded by <br> . Example - <br>@courseTitle:
- To identify a character style place the style name inside <> without the colon, Example - <@creditHours>
NOTE: These style sheets do not have paragraph formatting but can change character styles WITHIN a paragraph.
See a list of XPress Tags to use in your document...
I prefer to assign attributes to the style sheets developed in Quark because that allows you the most flexibility in design of the print document. I will assign paragraph style sheets and character style sheets to my data and leave the definition of those styles to the publication designer. One tag I do use a lot is the Tab Character identified by <\#9 >. The location of the tab set and the alignment will be set in Quark.
The following is an example of XPress Tags added to a one record of data. These codes will be interpreted by Quark when imported. A tab will be placed where indicated by the <\#9 > tag but it will be up to the print designer to style that tab by assigning a tab location and alignment to the courseTitle and the courseCodes style sheets.
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This data, once imported and formatted through style sheets, displayed in our 2007-2008 catalog like this:
The two tabs that were placed before the <@courseCredits> tag have been assigned a location (for example, 3.5") and right alignment in the courseTitle and courseCodes style sheets of the Quark document. |
See a list of XPress Tags to use in your document...