Every two weeks Quark VS InDesign.com and XChange International gives away 2 great prizes—an extraordinary xtension for QuarkXPress and an incredible InDesign plug-in. All you have to do to win is…

• [1] Become a Quark VS InDesign.com member (free), and;
• Throw your name into the giveaway hat at the bottom of this page.

That’s all. No purchase or song and dance necessary. A winner will be chosen at random from those who enter on this page.

This contest has ended. On 2008-02-24 we gave
Xdata from Em Software
To Ed O. of Cainta, Rizal Philippines

Congratulations, Ed! Get some prizes for yourself on our [4] Contests & Giveaways page.

The We Gave Away This Time

 
[5] Xdata
from Em Software

Xdata is the best-selling XTension that brings the full typographic and picture publishing power of QuarkXPress to bear on all your data-driven repetitive publishing tasks: catalogues, directories, form letters, financial summaries, tables, labels, lists of all sorts, and more.

Completely integrated with XPress 6 and 7, Xdata automatically formats data exported from your Macintosh or Windows database and spreadsheet applications, or downloaded from your corporate information systems, freeing you from endless manual formatting. Xdata can also import related pictures (of any type supported by XPress) into boxes anchored in the incoming text.

Xdata is easy to use. In your database or spreadsheet application, you select and sort the data to be published, exporting it in standard ascii “data snapshot” format (comma- or tab-delimited). In XPress, you create a “template” for your prototypical record, including placeholders for each field—e.g., <>—formatted in any fashion. You then select “Import from file…” from the Xdata menu in XPress, choose the data file, and press Start in the Xdata control panel. Xdata does the rest, completely “hands off.”

Xdata gives you complete control. Xdata has a powerful English-like scripting language that lets you include or exclude fields, pictures and static text, based on the value of one or more fields in the current or previous record. Thus, you can create sophisticated record templates that apply different formats to a field, based on its or another field’s value, e.g., causing a page break or formatting a major heading in reverse type, given a change of value indicating a new section or subsection. You can even apply master pages as needed!

For industrial-strength publishing, Xdata places no limits on your data: records and fields can be as many and as long as you need, within the overall limits of XPress documents. Xdata can create multiple, independent “dictionary-style” headers and footers on each page or spread, with sophisticated controls over the header/footer contents.

QuarkXPress guru David Blatner’s MacWorld (October, 2001) article Print Publishing Secrets says “Anyone who regularly publishes information from a database or spreadsheet should have Em Software’s … Xdata. There are more expensive XTensions that offer greater database connectivity, but Xdata is brilliantly simple and powerful enough for most database-publishing tasks.”

Xdata has been field-proven world-wide at thousands of installations since late 1990, ranging from one-man freelancers to Fortune 25 sites, and remains a top selling XTension. Xdata has been successfully used in hundreds of different types of applications, including:

Sweepstakes Rules

No purchase necessary to enter or win. Sweepstakes is open to residents of all countries where it is legal to enter and win. Compliance with applicable laws in the entrant’s locality is the sole responsibility of entrant.

To enter the contest, you must sign up to become a member of Quark VS InDesign.com or sign in as an existing member of Quark VS InDesign.com. Your membership must be active and in good standing at the time of the drawing to be eligible to win. Entries must be received between 12:01 AM (PST) on 2008-02-11 and 11:59 PM (PST) on 2008-02-24.

Mechanically reproduced entries are not accepted. Neither Quark VS InDesign.com nor the sweeptsakes sponsors or prize furnishers are responsible for error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operations or transmission, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to or alterations of entry materials, or for technical, network, telephone equipment, electronic, computer, hardware or software malfunctions of any kind, or inaccurate transmission of, or failure to receive entry information by sponsor on account of technical problems or traffic congestion on the Internet or at any website or any combination thereof. The aforementioned parties are also not responsible for any injury or damage to entrant’s or any other person’s computer related to or resulting from downloading any materials in the contest.

By submitting an entry for this sweepstakes, you agree to abide by these rules and any decision Quark VS InDesign.com makes regarding this sweepstakes. Quark VS InDesign.com reserves the right to disqualify any participant or winner who, in Quark VS InDesign.com’s reasonable suspicion, tampers with the entry process, intentionally submits more than a single entry, violates these rules, or acts in an unsportsmanlike or disruptive manner.

Winners will be notified by electronic mail at the e-mail address current in winner’s Quark VS InDesign.com member profile at the time of entry. If any winner does not respond to email notification within three days of its transmission, or should the email be returned as undeliverable after 2 attempts, the prize will be forfeited. Winners may be required to sign and return an Affidavit of eligibility/Liability/Publicity Release within 10 days of date printed on notification or s/he will be disqualified and an alternate will be selected at random. Winners may not substitute or transfer prizes. Sponsor reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater value in the event a prize is unavailable. Prizes are not redeemable for cash. All taxes on prize are winners’ responsibility. Limit: one prize per household. Except where prohibited by law, entry constitutes permission to use winners’ names, hometowns and likenesses for online posting, and/or any advertising and publicity without additional compensation. Quark VS InDesign.com abides by all laws governing the export of items outside the United States. Open to those 18 years of age or older. Void where prohibited by law. All federal, state and local laws and regulations apply. Sweepstakes governed by U.S. law.

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Prize will be awarded in a random drawing held from among all eligible entries received. Odds of winning depend on the total number of entries received.