Can anyone help me navigate the computer program Quark?

[expatkat]

Two questions. . .on the off chance someone out there is Quark literate.

1. How do I make all the tools visible?

2. How do I get rid of the large x's which have essentially locked me out of the document?

Am too afraid to ask my colleagues (though I will if I have to) because it will become clear to them how behind on this deadline I am!

OK the tools thing is eihter F10 F11 or F12 and the x's I don't know but it could be to do with linking text boxes

Thanks, Suzy, but should mention this is a Mac and also an old version of QuarkXpress (4) so F10 F11 and F12 didn't work.

I just dusted off my QuarkXpress book as we speak, so maybe I can find my answers there.

(Quark was recently reinstalled on my computer so everything is all wonky at the mo. I'm basically starting from scratch, as opposed to working on a ready-made template, as I usually do.)

Not sure what you mean about xs but the view menu at the top will show you everything you want including the grid and invisibles (ie all the marks such as forcing a line break as well as the text). The help menu on Quark is pretty good too.
Just thought, if Suzywong is right, then xs could be to do with the chain and unchain tool which links different text boxes. You click on the chain tool at the bottom of the tools box (it looks like a chain, helpfully) and click the box you want to link and then the box you want to link it to. The unchain tool is the broken chain and basically works the same way. For instance, if you are working in columns of text, you chain from the bottom of one box at the bottom of the page to the top of the next box at the top of the page
HTH

Eddm--Are you a medical writer, by any chance, or is that a different mumsnetter? [slightly off topic]

It's almost as if in reinstalling Quark, the tools box (you know, with the drawing tool, the linking tool et al) didn't make it. I've tried everything in the view menu to unhide it, but it just isn't anywhere.

Thanks for the unchaining tip. When I find the tool box, I can attend to that next!

Many thanks to you both.

Weirdly I had to "hide" the tools first before I could find them.

The x's I referred to turned out to indicate a picture box. I ended up "deleting" it under "items" and now I can get into my text!

So glad I didn't have admit my stupidity to work people! Honestly, you can ask anything on mumsnet & someone will know the answer.

glad you are sorted
those F commands work on macs, I only have macs