Whither Mac-based systems?
Whither Quark and Apple?

LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- Is Macintosh as "insanely great" (to quote Steve Jobs) as it once was?

In the world of newspaper publishing, it's pretty much accepted that there must be some Macs in the newsroom, at least to handle graphics. Macintoshes were way ahead of the curve when it came to graphics handling back in the late 1980s, when they started sprouting on virtually every artist's desk at newspapers big, medium and small.

But PCs running Windows have mounted a charge, with two of the most important shrink-wrapped solutions -- Quark XPress and Adobe Photoshop -- now able to run in that Other Environment, dominated by Bill Gates.

So the big question in 1994 for newspaper publications is: Whither Macintosh-based systems? This branches into two related questions: Whither Quark? Whither Apple?

As the rapidly changing newspaper publishing industry moves into the second half of the 1990s, it's too bad the industry as a whole hasn't been as innovative and responsive as these Mac-based production tools. Macintoshes have been responsible for redefining many newsroom jobs, making it possible for one person to tackle what were two or three jobs in the pre-Mac days.

In the belt-tightening '90s, Mac-based systems certainly have made it possible to do more without creating any new positions on every newspaper that has used Macs in even a minimal way.

However, the hardware investment has been great -- not as great as those old proprietary systems, but still substantial. And Apple keeps upping the ante; now it's up to the new PowerMacs with the 601 PowerPC chip based on RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) technology.

This in turn requires software upgrades, as applications have to migrate from the old Motorola 68000 processor to the PowerPC version (though the PowerPC comes with a 68000 emulator, which means the old software runs, just not fast).

And old hardware has to be upgraded as well. Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple has pushed the envelope so much in the '90s that some computer models had a release life of less than a year (the IIvx, for example).

On the better news side, though, most (not all) of the recent Mac models can be upgraded to the PowerPC. And the cost of new Macs has dropped dramatically in the '90s, thanks to such forces as competition, positioning and market share.

The new PowerMacs were much in evidence at the Apple booth, including a collaboration with monitor maker Radius to demonstrate the newsroom of the '90s. Still, not that many applications have been rewritten to take full advantage of the PowerPC chip.

So whither Quark? With Quark for Windows selling very well worldwide, it continues to grow by leaps and bounds. In fact, a NEXPO news conference was told that customer service had become the biggest department at Quark's Denver headquarters.

Quark is found around the globe, the PowerMac version is on its way and no one around seems to be able to bump Quark from its position as the No. 1 shrink-wrapped solution for professional page makeup.

The big news at Quark was Quark Publishing System (QPS) version 1.1, which was being demoed and was ready for an early third-quarter release in the United States. The long-awaited Quark XPress 3.3 is now a reality, and QPS 1.1 is compatible with that latest release. (XPress 3.3 does run a bit faster and better than either 3.1 or the short-lived version 3.2.)

Let's not forget to mention that the PowerPC versions of these programs could/should be available sometime before the end of the year.

QPS 1.1 has done away with quite a bit of the fussy interface that caused real-life production people bouts of brow-wrinkling. For instance: Batch checkouts from the Quark database are now possible; the header of a file doesn't have to be displayed when it's checked into the database; the interface of the Dispatch Administrator program has been redesigned to make configuration less labyrinthian.

The verdict after a demo is, yes, it is better, even though the database, with provisions now for 125 users (up from 50), still isn't up to the industrial strength that really big newsrooms require.

And with the 1.1 version of Connect, the system extension that enables QPS to track and manage third-party files in its database, word processors like Microsoft Word can be used for writing -- though Connect doesn't support length estimates for third-party word processors.

A beta version available in late summer will enable Word for Windows to work with QPS as well.

Call it a trend, but systems that were solely Macintosh are now rapidly bridging to the PC world as well.

Quark recognized the importance of openness early on with XTensions. These add-ons have proliferated until there are more than 400 for XPress and 25 for the QPS system.

Managing Editor Software of Jenkintown, Pa., was one of the first to make some really great XTensions for newspaper publishing. On display was an improved -- and renamed -- version of the well-regarded Page Director, which now comes in Classified Layout System, Ad Layout System and Editorial Layout System.

But two new XTensions are noteworthy: Managing EditorXTPro (Mext Pro) and Zeke. These two could be all that a small publication needs to get the functionality of XPress into its existing system.

Mext Pro is the renamed Gatherer XTension beefed up with the ability to display thumbnails of graphics or text, and drag these elements right over to an XPress layout -- as well as scale graphic elements to your specification. It's a mini-Finder within Quark XPress.

Zeke allows an integrator to give the Mext functionality to other databases -- importing, exporting and filtering information about the XPress page to another database program. Zeke is an old fishhook maker, allowing Mext to work with many other databases.

How are other Mac-based systems navigating the currents of change in 1994? Pretty well.

Baseview Products of Ann Arbor, Mich., kept its own booth at NEXPO, despite adding "Harris Publishing Systems" (its new owner) to all its promotional literature. This company has a strong following in the middle-sized newspaper market, and quite attractive pricing for its completely Mac solutions.

New at NEXPO were NewsEditPro for text management, and Archiver, an XTension to get stories from Quark pages ready for placement into the Baseview electronic database with Transporter, which also functions as a file importer from other systems using Claris Xtnd technology.

Digital Technology International was in the Apple booth, and in a two-story booth of its own, where one could sit and get a unique perspective of the show from on high. The perspective of this company from Orem, Utah, remains the same: a great database with tight integration, no Quark, yet plenty of Mac -- an open system, but our software is better.

While NEXPO was under way, the Las Vegas Review-Journal was using a DT system to produce 30 to 50 percent of its pages, some to full-page output.

At NEXPO, the DT demo, using a frontier-town motif complete with last-minute breaking news, was effective. Behind it all sits the SQL database running on a SPARC server.

The DT database search engine is being upgraded to support natural language search and retrieval, and all the software is being rewritten to take advantage of the PowerPC. A sound approach ... and yet the whole package doesn't seem to quite equal the sum of its six-part pie.

But it's getting there. No Mac system supplier offers any better integration of its products, and the new database reporting software is a manager's dream. With natural language queries, even they will be able to extract reports from the database all by themselves.

Freedom System Integrators of Wichita, Kan., was showing a hybrid sort of Mac system -- one part Mycro-Comp Freedom Series and the other the various Q-XTensions and applications that are part of the Q-series from sister company QED Technology Ltd. of the U.K. The software decently does what it should -- interact with Quark XPress to provide editorial and pagination functions. Nothing too flashy, but nothing really awful, either.

P.INK is a German, Quark-based pagination system found in the Scitex America booth at this NEXPO. Scitex, of Bedford, Mass., bought the distribution rights (and part of the company) and set about Americanizing the user interface. To a large degree, it has succeeded.

P.INK has a wonderful SQL-compliant database of its own manufacture that keeps track of page elements. But the database must be manually updated by users (and we know how good they'll be at that).

Many worthy skippers are plying the Mac pagination sea. The ones who prosper will just have to be able to tack into the wind every so often.

AppleComputer Inc.,
(408) 996-1010;
Baseview Products,
(313) 662-5800;
Digital Technology International,
(801) 226-2984;
Freedom System Integrators,
(316) 722-8100;
Managing Editor Software,
(215) 886-5662;
Quark Inc.,
(303) 894-8888;
Scitex America,
(617) 275-5150.

-- George Powell

From THE COLE PAPERS, August 1994, Copyright (c) 1994, All Rights Reserved.