The OSX Migration
XPress 6.0 is being upgraded for both Mac and Windows (now running on XP), so this release isn't entirely about OS X, but that's the topic shining in the spotlight. Mac owners' choices are simple:

1. They can upgrade to OS X and XPress 6.0 (which only runs on OS X).

2. They can upgrade to OS X and switch to InDesign.
3. They can work in a mixed InDesign/XPress environment.
4. They can scrap the Mac and get a Windows machine.

It is not viable to remain in OS 9 running an earlier version of XPress. At least not for long. Apple has essentially abandoned OS 9, and if you're running XPress in Classic, you're already highly frustrated. And now by making the files that come out of 6.0 incompatible with version 4.0 or below, Quark has almost certainly sealed your fate. (You can save a file out of 6.0 to 5.0 then open it in 5.0 and save it in 4.0, but who's going to do that?) So anyone who exchanges or edits XPress files (and who doesn't?) will eventually have a compatibility problem. The switch to OS X is inevitable -- it's only a question of when.

XPress 6.0 does not take full advantage of OS X (no Quartz rendering technology), and the application looks much the same as it did before, although it now has the fancy Aqua interface. But that may be an advantage for Quark users, who are Mac fans, but not necessarily fanatics. Quark admits they came late to the OS X bandwagon, and the rush to catch up shows a bit in this release. Some interface elements, like the measurements palette, are substantially bigger than in previous editions, taking up more valuable screen space.

We can only speculate what Quark 6.0 would be like if it was still Tim Gill's baby (Quark co-founder who sold the company several years ago). Hundreds of talented programmers in India cannot substitute for the passion and pride of authorship that an original programmer brings. And after 16 years of code-building, XPress is notorious for its programming complexity.

Apple is certainly hoping that the switch to OS X and XPress 6.0 will coincide with increased investment in hardware, particularly the new line of G5 machines. The minimum requirements for 6.0 on the Mac have grown significantly: G3 or faster processor, 128MB of RAM and 230MB of hard drive space. So older machines that can run OS X v10.2 may do okay, but if you're marginal in running OS X, you probably won't be happy with the performance.

And since XPress has its most trouble when squeezing memory, you'll be better served by at least 512 MB of RAM. When the sagging economy perks up and budgets for hardware upgrades appear again, then we'll all be nicely surprised by the performance boost we get. I didn't experience any problems in running 6.0 on my early 500mhz G4, though it seemed just a little "pokey." However, I did not do any sort of speed benchmarks, but I felt no handicap.

In Windows you'll need 128MB of RAM, 190MB of hard drive space, and Windows 2000 or Windows XP.

Upgrade Pricing
Here's where I have less issue with Quark. The upgrade price for 6.0, depending on which version you own, is $199-$499 (most of us will pay $299 to upgrade from 4.0). The list price for the full product pushes the envelope for this market by topping the $1,000 mark, although you can get it from the Apple store and others for $899 (which is still more than InDesign's list price of $699). XPress, by the way, first came out in 1987, the same year as Adobe Illustrator, which is now in version 10. Upgrade value is hard to pin down -- I'd rather have fewer upgrades and pay more for them than have lots of upgrades and the inevitable disruptions caused by them. Quark 4.0 has worked well for many years and I can't imagine anyone who uses it in a professional setting that hasn't gotten their money's worth.

Plus, I've thought since the beginning of the desktop revolution that page-composition software was under valued. People will pay $499 for an iPod, then balk at $299 to upgrade a tool that performs miracles every time it prints a page. But the free market dictates price and value, so by comparison to its main competition, XPress is overpriced.

And for those prices I would like to get a real manual, not just the PDF files.

Customer Service
Whether deserved or not, Quark has a reputation for being a little stingy on customer service. Part of the problem is that Quark puts so few resources into marketing and PR that no matter what they do, their brand image is misunderstood. I've been out to Denver plenty of times to hear the "we really do love our customers" pitch, and I usually come back feeling like the bad reputation is a bit unfair -- there are some nice people at Quark who seem to be listening to customers and doing the right thing. But Quark won't win any Brownie points this time around for the support that comes with 6.0.

For the price of 6.0 you get one tech support phone call or one e-mail exchange, period. After that, you can pay per incident ($15), buy an extended service package ($95 for 90 days or $229 for 12 months if you prepay -- more if you buy on credit) or purchase an e-mail support plan ($129 per year). At Adobe you get unlimited tech support for 30 days on a major software upgrade, and 90 days on a new software purchase.

In fairness, I haven't needed to call Quark support during the last two upgrades, so I can't really feel cheated. And one measure of customer service is surely the quality of the product and our ability to use it without needing support. But for a major upgrade one call seems skimpy. With the new features of 6.0, the oddball registration scheme, and the operating systems changes, I'll bet more customers than normal will have issues. And when it turns out there are bugs that trigger phone calls, Quark owes it to its customers to extend warranty service appropriately.

I can't advise you that tech support policies, upgrade pricing, or even licensing restrictions are a good reason not to buy QuarkXPress 6.0. In the end those things fade into the background and you're left with just the product, day after day. Yet you always have a choice of who you do business with, and for some people that weighs as heavily as anything else. Quark is a little like a mischievous cousin -- every time you see them they swear things are different now, but you secretly know they'll never change.

XPress 5
General consensus around the industry is that not that many people upgraded to QuarkXPress 5.0. Many of the features in 6.0, then, will be new to buyers, even though they appeared first in 5.0. These include editable layers, a table editor, XML import and export capabilities, context sensitive menus (control click or right-button click on any item and a pop-up menu appears with the options for that item), and basic Web publishing tools (along with lots of other little stuff). QuarkXPress 5.0 was, in many ways, a more substantial upgrade than 6.0. So if you're jumping from 4.0 to 6.0, you are getting quite a few new features.

But let's look at 6-specific features.