Setting up a style sheet 1

[mono570]

Hi there everybody,
Hope this question doesn't seem too trivial for some of the experts! I'm setting up a text box style sheet and am having difficulty in one particular area. The style sheet is almost set the way I want it with 'Times' font, size 12, and a drop cap that goes down 3 lines, Space before & after .25 inches. The problem I'm having is: How do I get a .25 inch space on the top and bottom of the text box, so that there's a .25 in space all round the text box?
Thanks in advance...

 

[GeorgeMack]

Try using text insets. In Quark 4.x you have one inset (all around) which is the relief from the border of the box. In Quark 5.x you can set different insets on each edge (assuming your box is square...)

If that won't do what you want, you could start the box contents with a miniscule (1/1 pt) empty paragraph, after which your space-before would kick in...

Hope this helps.
George

 

[mono570]

Thanks for the input George...
Yes, the text box is square. How do I set up the 'insets' within the style sheet itself? What are the commands I must check/uncheck within the 'edit' style sheet command so I only have to point & click on the saved style sheet for similar text-boxes? Am using Quark 4.1
Regards
Celeste

 

[GeorgeMack]

Quark keeps "text inset" as a property of the Text Box, not the paragraph, so you can't store it in a style sheet. (There are a few third party Xtensions for Quark 4.x that store some properties as a Box Style, but I'm not sure that insets are included, only frames, colors, etc.)

If all or most of the new boxes you will be making will share these inset properties, you can save the insets as a preference (go to Preferences on the Edit menu and modify box preferences, then save.)

If these boxes with special insets will show up in a specific place all the time, you could save the Quark document as a Template (Save as... in the File menu) and load the text as needed.

Or you could write an AppleScript (on the Mac) to set the box insets to your preferred setting and run it when you create such a box.

There's just no linkage between a particular style sheet and a particular box property. Think about it this way-- two style sheets could each try to set a given property, and cause a crash or just continuously override each other. And there's no way for Quark to know what you intended the result to be. (Does it depend on which style sheet comes first, for example?)

Hope this helps.

George

 

[mono570]

George, with the info you supplied, I researched a little further and found the answers I needed. I can control the space before the beginning of the first paragraph by hitting 'Command-M' and increasing the inset to 9 pts. I then changed my style sheet for space before/after to .125" and it left an eight of an inch all round the text box. Thanks a bunch for the helpful insight.
Regards
Celeste.