Quark

I've been on the phone with Quark for the past hour. I'm still on the line with them. Okay. Finally I'm off. But I'm not done.

Last week I decided that I finally needed to update my Quark software. I've been printing my movie posters from a 4.1 version since it came out. I didn't think about upgrading until I got OS 10. That was when all the graphics software companies had to develop compatibility with 10. I updated photoshop first. I was going to update Quark but my printer said it had bugs. So, I waited. Why spend the money?

But now I am laying out Everybody I Shot Is Dead and I'm printing in China. The production and film separations are done in Northern California. This is a big project. I can't risk doing it on old software and running into problems down the line. I'm on a tight deadline. I decide to get the upgrade to Quark7.

I received the package yesterday. Couldn't wait to pop the disk into my computer. Pressed the install button. It did it's little testing the landscape thing. Then gave me a window that said something like, "you must have OS 10.4 of later to install Quark." Yup, I'm still running Panther. That's 10.3.9. Crap. I was worried that if I installed Tiger it would stop me from using Classic (9) and I need that for my accounting programs. Definitely don't want to update those at the moment. $. $. $.

Thankfully, the Apple Genius said it would survive the upgrade. Cool. I got a copy of Tiger (somewhere) this morning. Installed it. Took over 30 minutes. Then popped in the Quark disk. Yes, I'm cleared to install. Get to the "type in your validation number" - ack - gotta find that in some box I haven't seen in two years. Okay. Got it. Type it in. Wait. Why are there still a bunch of space boxes that are empty? Whatever. Click "continue." Boink. It ain't working.

Call Quark. Hold...hold...hold. A woman takes my call. I think they outsource to India. I can barely understand a word she says. Except every sentence starts and ends with "Deborah." I give her my old version's serial number. No record of my registration. Okay. She says she can register it for me. After many hoops - I jumped through all of them, thank you very much - Miss India was able to email me a validation number. An alphanumeric with 45 freakin' digits. An hour or so later I could open Quark. But then I had to install an update disk. And then I had to go online and download a second update and install it. Sheesh.

I'm done now. Finally I can get to work. It's crunch time. I'm going to the book expo in N.Y. It starts on June 1. I need to have two mock-ups to show buyers. I'm also looking to set up some meetings with some of the international rights companies - see if I should have it translated into foreign languages. And I'm in a hurry to get it to the printers. It will take three months from the day I deliver for the books to arrive back. Gotta have it out in time for holiday gift giving, right?

I better get busy.