Chris N Rowlett
Dallas, TX
214.435.4703

info@workplacemail.net

Custom Software Development 

Quark, Excel and Microsoft Access - Importing and Exporting

I wrote a custom Access application for a client that creates large Quark newspaper advertisements for real estate advertising using Quark.  The real estate properties listed in the advertising change constantly and the client needed a way to import that data into the Quark Express program quickly and easily.  The purpose of this project was to take an existing Microsoft Access database, export data from Access and import the data into Quark.  The end result is a huge time savings for the client.  Where the client normally spent several days creating the advertisement, this feature dropped that to only a couple of hours.

Exporting data from Microsoft Access to Quark is fairly easy.  You simply export to a text file.  However, the format of that export, so that the data is formatted with express tags and style sheet definitions for Quark is complicated.  Quark uses a style sheet format with Express Tags.  These tags are similar in concept to HTML tags, but different in the way the express tags are structured

It is important to use Style Sheets to format the Access database information for import data into Quark.  Also, if you plan on exporting your data from Excel to Quark then you will also need the style sheet information.

Using Excel with Quark

Additionally, I have had questions regarding importing Excel files into Quark.  This can be done.  It is fairly efficient for a one-time import from Excel to Quark.  But if your work involves importing data into quark repeatedly, then creating an Access application is probably a better solution.  The Excel files can easily be imported into Access and then the Access application can process the Excel data.

Even though merging Excel spreadsheet data with Quark is not very efficient, I do have that come up occaisionally. Very briefly, the method that I use to merge data from Excel files into Quark is as follows:

  • After setting up your Quark document with some test content, export the document as express tags.
  • The exported document contains the style sheet definitions and the sample data
  • Open your Excel document and insert a column before and a column after each column of data for which you have a specific style definition.
  • Copy and paste the style sheet tag, Quark Express Tags, into the before column.
  • Save your Excel file
  • Then, "save" your Excel file as a text file.
  • You will need to copy and paste the style sheet definitions into the top of your text file.
  • Use the Excel text file as your import into Quark. 
  • Be sure to select "include style sheet" when you perform the Quark import.

Using Microsoft Access with Quark:

Using Microsoft Access to create an export file that can be imported into Quark is a little more complicated than copy and paste with Excel.  However, the benefit is realized with situations where the data changes constantly and is imported repetitively into Quark publications.  Also, if the data is stored in Excel spreadsheet files, those spreadsheets can be imported into the Access database application.  This solves several problems for the people that are maintaining the Excel spreadsheets. The users still have a very easy and flexible way to maintain their data, and they do not have to learn or install a new program.

Very briefly, the steps for creating a MSAccess database application to export data for import into Quark are as follows:

  1. After setting up your Quark document with some test content, export the document as express tags.
  2. The exported document contains the style sheet definitions and the sample data
  3. Create an Access table called StyleSheets, with a field called DefName and a field called Definition
  4. Enter the name for the definition into the DefName field and copy the related style sheet definition into its own row of the table
  5.  ( For the programmer ) ... Create your VB code to 1) write out the style sheet definitions to the export file, 2) then cycle thru the data, matching up the data fields with the appropriate style sheet code and write that out your export text file.  Quark will need the style sheet definitions at the top of the export file.
  6. Have the user import the text file into a Quark document and see if the formatting is correct.
  7. Tweak as necessary.

I know that was extremely abbreviated, but, I would be happy to create the Access application for you, so you can start saving a lot of time.  Call or email me if you have questions.

There is more technical information about merging Access database with Quark here  quarkmerge.htm

 

You can contact me at:

Chris Rowlett
5495 Beltline Road, Suite 290
Dallas, TX  75254
p 214.435.4703
email: info@workplacemail.net

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