GridLock II

GridLock II is the ultimate grid generation XTension for QuarkXPress that enables users to quickly and easily create complex templates and page grids.

What GridLock II does

GridLock means that when you find yourself having to make up a dozen template pages for a new publication – all with different line spacings and column widths and some with uneven width columns – you won’t have a week of cramp to look forward to from dragging all those lines into position.

Gridlock II allows to accurately place and manipulate complex grids. You can lock grid lines in position, choose a different color, or even print them out to produce sketch templates.

As with all Automatic Software products, Gridlock II fully implements Apple’s Balloon Help system and a full on-line documentation window is accessible via the Balloon Help menu.

How to install GridLock

GridLock works like any other XPress XTension: put it in the same folder as your copy of XPress or the folder named ‘XTensions’ and it will be loaded when the program is launched. To prevent it being loaded, move it into another folder.

How GridLock works

Gridlock is designed for creating regularly spaced page grids where the spacing is the criteria rather than absolute position. Guides are defined as their spacing from the previous guide and the number of times that spacing is repeated. Using this method it is possible to create a 9pt baseline grid containing over 100 guides with a single entry.

Once GridLock has been installed, the GridLock item will be found under the Utilities menu within XPress. From here it is an easy matter to specify the number of guide lines required, the spacing, colour, etc. and by clicking Apply or OK, you will instantly see what used to take hours.

Selecting GridLock… from the Utilities menu makes a dialog appear.

The Gridlock Dialog

This is the heart of the GridLock XTension and contains two lists, where each entry is a number of guides with shared attributes. Within the dialog you have these options to choose from:

New N: This is used to add new grid lines to a layout. The new grid lines will be inserted at the point of the flashing horizontal cursor which can be dragged up and down with the small arrows.

Delete D: Deletes the highlighted guides in the active list.

HINT: Hold down the Option key to remove the guide but adjust the next guide’s width so that it maintains it’s absolute position on the page. This is very useful for removing guides manually dragged onto the page without upsetting the underlying grid.

Apply A: This applies the grids that you have set up so far so that you can see them on the page, but without committing you to anything. Use this to check on your set-up so far.

Save As… S & Open… O: These two options allow you to save grids in a seperate file. Once stored, a set of grids can be recalled into layouts just by clicking Open and locating the grid file.

About…: This dialog shows the current XTension version number and serial number and gives access to the online help (also found in the Balloon help menu in System 7) and registration dialog.

Cancel .: Returns you to the condition you were at before opening GridLock even if you have Applied guides to the page before closing.

OK: Apply the grid lines to the page and go back to your layout.

HINT: If you hold down the Command key while selecting OK then XPress rules in addition to guides will be added to the page so that you can print out your guides for template sheets etc. GridLock will define eight new colours which it will use to colour these rules, all XPress guides will create black rules. If you wish your guides to print as black then simply switch off ‘Print colours as greys’ in the Print dialog.

HINT: If you hold the Option key down while selecting OK then the current set of guides will be applied to all the pages in the document deleting any that were on other pages and flipping them for lefts and rights where necessary. If you are editing the grid of a master page then the guides will be applied to the current spread.

Keyboard Power

We have made every effort to ensure that you can drive GridLock II from the keyboard wherever possible. In addition to standard Cut, Copy & Paste and Command key short cuts already described it is possible to navigate around the lists with the keyboard.

The Tab key switches the currently active list between the horizontal and vertical guides. The Cursor Up/ Down, Page Up/Down, Home/End keys moves the currently hilited cell in the active list. Holding down the Shift key extends the current selection. The Option or Command key moves the insertion point rather than the selection. If there is a cell hilited then the Return key (or Cmd-E) brings up the guide editing dialog. The Backspace key will delete the selected cells.

Setting Up Grids

By clicking on the ‘New’ button, or double clicking on an existing grid defined in the list, a dialog appears with the following options:

Spacing: Determines the spacing between grids defined in this entry. The default units of measurement are those set up in the XPress preferences for the direction they run in (ie horizontal or vertical). As with other XPress dialogs simple expressions can be used such as ‘8.5pt + 5mm’ which will be evaluated.

Count: Determines the number of grid lines of the given specification that will be generated by this entry.

Scale: Dictates at what page view scale the grid lines are still visible. Your grids may be so close together that the merge into a useless mess at low view scales. If you choose Auto, then the minimum scale will be calculated that will make them invisible before they merge.

Type: Determines whether the grids defined are for the page or the spread via a pop-up menu. NOTE that if you create spread guides on a master page then XPress will not automatically apply these to document pages.

Colour: Use the pop-up to specify the colour required for the set of grid lines. Note that on a black and white Macintosh, the ‘Colour’ pop-up is not present.

Adopt: An XPress page holds two types of grid line and this button allows you to set which type you want. ‘Unadopted’ gridlines are standard Quark guides which appear in the default guide colour set in the Application Preferences. ‘Adopted’ ones are owned by GridLock and can be coloured at will but will only appear in that colour on machines running GridLock.

Locked: To avoid accidental grabbing of grid lines while working on a layout, they can be locked by checking this box.

HINT: You can also click on the padlock icon in the main dialog.

Cancel: Cancels all changes and closes dialog. The current guide is not altered

OK: Close dialog and apply choices to the selected guide.

HINT: Hold down the Option key to apply the changes to all guides with the same original width and count.

Ruler Relative Guides

The measurements in GridLock can now be specified relative to the user’s ruler origin rather than the page origin by holding down the Option key when selecting the GridLock II… entry in the Utilities menu.

The measurements still run top to bottom and from the gutter to the outside edge so on a left hand page the vertical rules run right to left. This feature is especially useful for users doing forms design.

If the GridLock XTension is missing

If you open a page without the GridLock XTension it will still have its grid and you will be able to use it perfectly well but if you locked the guides then you will no longer be able to move or delete the lines. If you coloured the guides then they will appear in the default XPress guide colour.

About this manual

This manual assumes that you are familiar with the Macintosh operating system and with QuarkXPress, please refer to their respective manuals if you are not. Macintosh is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc and QuarkXPress is a registered trademark of Quark, Inc.

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