Quark XPress 3.32/4 document conversion

R

romotchka

6502
Hello 68kmla members,
I am committed to produce a modern version of a catalogue of sound archives edited years ago with Quark XPress 3.32 or 4.x, presumably on a G4 (we no longer possess the computer). For this punctual, one-shot need I'd prefer avoiding to build up a SheepShaver / Basilisk environment, find a XPress copy, etc.
Interested to get in touch with an owner of such environment to help me read and convert those files under acceptable conditions. Thank you very much by advance!
 
romotchka said:
Hello 68kmla members,
I am committed to produce a modern version of a catalogue of sound archives edited years ago with Quark XPress 3.32 or 4.x, presumably on a G4 (we no longer possess the computer). For this punctual, one-shot need I'd prefer avoiding to build up a SheepShaver / Basilisk environment, find a XPress copy, etc.
Interested to get in touch with an owner of such environment to help me read and convert those files under acceptable conditions. Thank you very much by advance!
Click to expand...

I can help. I have an iBook running OS 9 with a registered copy of Quark 4.1 installed. It’s actually a legitimate copy my Dad bought back in 1998!
 
croissantking said:
I can help. I have an iBook running OS 9 with a registered copy of Quark 4.1 installed. It’s actually a legitimate copy my Dad bought back in 1998!
Click to expand...
Hi croissantking! Wow, you happen to be my potential savior!!!!!!! How do you propose to elaborate on this? Many many thanks for the proposal. Awaiting instructions! Best,
 
romotchka said:
Hi croissantking! Wow, you happen to be my potential savior!!!!!!! How do you propose to elaborate on this? Many many thanks for the proposal. Awaiting instructions! Best,
Click to expand...

I'm very happy to help.

You'll have to send over the files somehow - making sure to preserve the files' resource forks by correctly packaging them up. For example, could you compress all the documents and their folder structure into a Stuffit 5.5 archive and then encode it in MacBinary/HQX? Then send it over the internet by your favourite method?

I'll need some guidance as to what format you'd like me to output them, I assume something like EPS?

Are there a lot of files, embedded images, fonts etc? What kind of drive/computer are the files currently stored on?
 
Last edited:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1YoFfPalI65_ISWfkk0Jbg654xGLrP_Hd
Hello croissantking. The files were already copied to a Windows system, so the resource forks may be missing.
I zipped the original folder structure. Hopefully QuarkXPress should still open the documents. If fonts are missing, the unique font used should be Optima / Optima Bold but I do not care about fonts or layout. The 7 documents contain no image, they are plain text with some basic alignment settings to make bare track lists. 50 track lists per document except last one, smaller. So a basic export in text format is ok (preferably Unicode, but not sure if the option then existed - otherwise Mac encoding). If no text export seems relevant, PDF ok. Please notify when you downloaded the archive. Though absolutely nothing confidential, I will remove it after usage. Wish you a great day. Numerous thanks by advance!!!
 
romotchka said:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1YoFfPalI65_ISWfkk0Jbg654xGLrP_Hd
Hello croissantking. The files were already copied to a Windows system, so the resource forks may be missing.
I zipped the original folder structure. Hopefully QuarkXPress should still open the documents. If fonts are missing, the unique font used should be Optima / Optima Bold but I do not care about fonts or layout. The 7 documents contain no image, they are plain text with some basic alignment settings to make bare track lists. 50 track lists per document except last one, smaller. So a basic export in text format is ok (preferably Unicode, but not sure if the option then existed - otherwise Mac encoding). If no text export seems relevant, PDF ok. Please notify when you downloaded the archive. Though absolutely nothing confidential, I will remove it after usage. Wish you a great day. Numerous thanks by advance!!!
Click to expand...

I can't open them - I get the error 'This document cannot be opened by this version of QuarkXPress'. I added type and creator info to one of the files, as well as creating an empty resource fork and then copying over an XTND resource (the only one) from a new Quark file I created.

The .qxp file extensions are a bit unusual assuming the files were really created on Quark 3/4 in OS 9. It suggests they may have been resaved on a newer version of the app, or on a PC – unless they were added manually.

slomacuser said:
I think you need a Quark version 6 and up so Mac OS X app to open your files. If nobody success I can try it to open after work.
Click to expand...

You may be right, but how did you come to this conclusion?
 
croissantking said:
I can't open them - I get the error 'This document cannot be opened by this version of QuarkXPress'. I added type and creator info to one of the files, as well as creating an empty resource fork and then copying over an XTND resource (the only one) from a new Quark file I created.

The .qxp file extensions are a bit unusual assuming the files were really created on Quark 3/4 in OS 9. It suggests they may have been resaved on a newer version of the app, or on a PC – unless they were added manually.



You may be right, but how did you come to this conclusion?
Click to expand...
To you both, thank you for your efforts, first things first. Now, regarding the extension and the software environment it comes from. I was almost sure it was done on 3.32 or 4., very low probability of higher version though not impossible (I did not follow up accurately, this was on my dad's Mac, which was not regularly updated and which stayed for years on 3.32). Now, for the extension, this is my manual renaming action (let's call it my bad), since the files were for some reasons without any extension at all.
 
romotchka said:
To you both, thank you for your efforts, first things first. Now, regarding the extension and the software environment it comes from. I was almost sure it was done on 3.32 or 4., very low probability of higher version though not impossible (I did not follow up accurately, this was on my dad's Mac, which was not regularly updated and which stayed for years on 3.32). Now, for the extension, this is my manual renaming action (let's call it my bad), since the files were for some reasons without any extension at all.
Click to expand...
Yeah that's odd. I looked at the file header (first line of code) and it states MMXPR3... so it does look like version 3/4... but it definitely refuses to open (I only tried the first file).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top