9.3

Boxes, lines, and tables
To create a successful page layout, you need an orderly way to arrange text and pictures
— you need boxes. Boxes are items that can contain text or pictures; they can even be
created to contain no content at all, perhaps to create colorful design elements on a page.
Box boundaries give text and pictures a specific shape, size, and placement on a page.
Understanding items and content
QuarkXPress works on the concept of items (containers) and content (things that go inside
of items).
Items are the building blocks of a page layout. The Item tool lets you do things like
move, resize, rotate, reshape, cut, copy, and paste items.
The basic types of items are as follows:
• Boxes, including text boxes, picture boxes, and no-content boxes. Boxes can come in a
variety of shapes, such as rectangular, round, and Bézier.
• Lines, including "plain" lines and text paths (which can include text). Lines, too, can be
straight or Bézier.
• Groups, which are sets of items that have been "glued" together so that they act like a single
item.
• Tables, which can contain both text and pictures.
• Forms, which let you create HTML forms (Web layouts only).
• Form controls, which let you create HTML form controls (Web layouts only).
Content is, basically, text and pictures. To create a layout, you will typically draw some
text boxes and picture boxes, and then insert text and pictures into those boxes.
Because items and content are different, you use separate tools for manipulating each:
•
The Text Content tool lets you create rectangular text boxes and format text in text
boxes or on text paths. You can also use the Text Content tool to cut, copy, and paste
text.
64 | A GUIDE TO QUARKXPRESS 9.3 - PLUS EDITION
BOXES, LINES, AND TABLES