Betsy Perry of Perry Creative, Inc., gives a Quark to InDesign download review, in this video interview by David Dilling, Markzware Europe. Betsy shares her experience of using the Q2ID InDesign plugin by Markzware for QuarkXPress to Adobe InDesign file conversion:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmnRnifsNl8
Here is the transcript for the video:
DAVID: Hi, Betsy.
BETSY: Hi.
DAVID: I think you’ve used Skype before, haven’t you? Hi. Good Evening, or Good Morning, or whatever it is for you. Good Day. David Dilling for Markzware. And, today, we have another Markzware customer, Betsy Perry, from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Correct?
BETSY: Yes, sir.
DAVID: Alright, so, without any further ado, let’s throw it right over to Betsy, and she can tell us more about herself. Betsy.
BETSY: Hi, David.
DAVID: Hi.
BETSY: About me. Well, I’ve been doing this a long, long time. I don’t mind telling people my age. I’m 67 and I’m a single-person entity, today.
I started out as a copywriter, in 1980, and then, a creative director. And, as soon as Macs came out, and all the designers got Macs in their offices, I kept sneaking into their offices and playing with their Macs. And that’s really when I got started with design and layout, too.
So, today, I do both of those things. I work part-time… I work for several agencies in town, but then, I started my own freelance business, in 1992. And, today, I work part-time for a non-profit, here in Tulsa, called Choregus Productions. And I do everything, a whole lot of things, for them, including their marketing graphics and some writing. But all my evenings and weekends, I’m still a freelancer, so…
DAVID: Right. Well, yeah. Once a freelance, always a freelancer, at heart, right?
BETSY: Yeah.
DAVID: Well, I just have to say it. You look great for 67. I mean, it’s amazing.
BETSY: Oh, thank you. Thank you.
DAVID: You’ll have to tell us about that in another video, anyway. Okay, so, maybe you can give us a little more detail about the software you use on a daily basis, your workflow, so to speak.
BETSY: Well, because I got started, so many years ago and at the beginning of Macs and everything, I used Quark, because that’s all there was. That’s basically all there was available, back then.
DAVID: Sure. Right.
BETSY: And I was a dyed-in-the-wool Quark user. I used it for everything, business, personal, all kinds of things, along with Photoshop, and Illustrator, and all the others, but…
And then, eventually, the industry started kind of nudging everybody towards InDesign, and I resisted, as long as I could, but eventually I made the switch, to switch to InDesign. And, of course, I loved it, just like everybody else does, now, the whole suite, but I’ve still got Quark documents on my computer, here, so…
DAVID: Yeah, yeah. So, now we’ll jump into the Markzware side, because, obviously, you made that, like one customer interview said, David in Massachusetts said, he made the “great migration,” because he had used Quark in the past, and… “Yes, of course, I made the big migration and we’ve really been… we’ve been buying Markzware…” Like everybody else. I thought that was great.
BETSY: And that’s exactly what happens. And, again, it’s not just, I mean, yeah, business. You get a client who calls you and says, “Remember that such-and-such we did?” And then, they name some year, years before. And, yes, I have everything archived.
I’ve lost very few things to technical problems, over the years. And so, or maybe it’s the client’s and he doesn’t even need to request it. I just need to look at something that’s back there. I need to grab a portion of something. That happens a lot.
DAVID: Right.
BETSY: So, I need to open the document, and I don’t want to have to have Quark on my computer, in order to have access to those documents.
DAVID: Right. And how did you learn about Markzware?
BETSY: You know, I don’t remember. It’s been a while, but I’m gonna take a guess. I think this, a pretty sure thing, is that I probably was doing exactly that. I was probably trying to find something on my computer and a client probably called and said, “I want to update such-and-such,” and it was still in Quark.
And I thought, “I need to start moving this back over to InDesign.” And I’m sure I did a Google search and said, “What are my options?”
DAVID: Right. Yeah, okay. So, with Q2ID, we do not have a demo version. We, actually, live off of these sort of testimonials and word-of-mouth. Can you tell a user how does Q2ID work, the whole process?
BETSY: First of all, you have to get used to the fact that you can’t just find the document on your drive and double-click it, if it’s a Quark document. You have to go through InDesign, in order to do that, okay? You just have to get used to that. That’s no big deal.
And, here, I’m not getting paid to do this, but I’ll be really honest with you. I expected to have a lot of little glitches and things, when I would do the transition from Quark to InDesign. And I was really surprised at how few problems developed, or were there, when I would convert a document.
DAVID: Wow.
BETSY: I mean, yeah, there are fonts. You have to deal with the fonts and things like that, but I’ve just been really surprised.
DAVID: Excellent.
BETSY: I have this one document. It’s basically a to-do list, but I’ve been using it for years. It’s something I developed, myself. And I started it, back when I was using Quark, and it’s multiple pages, because it includes notes about personal projects and things like that.
And I thought, “Boy, when I convert that, it’s going to be a mess!” Well, it wasn’t. I mean, once I got the fonts brought in, like into, within InDesign, it was really a piece of cake.
DAVID: Awesome, yeah, yeah, that’s one of the typical problems is fonts. You need to have the fonts, or it’s best to have the fonts that were used in the original file.
BETSY: Right.
DAVID: And, if you don’t, you’ll have to substitute it for the best or second best, and that can cause some issues. You can also go through and touch that up. So, I guess the next question is pretty redundant, then. Would you recommend Q2ID for other users?
BETSY: I absolutely. This is an easy question. It has helped me. It’s still helping me. And, again, it’s not just client documents that I’m talking about and business stuff. I mean, I used to put my recipes on Quark documents and so, now, when I want to go back and look at an old recipe, “Hey, I got something!”
DAVID: Wow! And Q2ID is a subscription. Now, why do you keep renewing it, year after year?
BETSY: Well, there will probably come a time, when I feel like it’s not going to be that much needed anymore, but right now, I still am turning to it, oh, at least, you know, two or three times a week.
DAVID: Wow.
BETSY: And, as I said, it’s not just business, it’s also personal. I have some personal documents on my computer that I go back to, occasionally.
DAVID: Right.
BETSY: So, I’m holding onto it. And, honestly, when I first looked into it, I thought, “Well, that sounds like an awful lot of money,” but no, not really. I mean, what’s the alt? My alternative is just recreating or looking at a PDF that’s way old, and it’s not going to do me any good. So, it’s definitely worth it!
DAVID: Awesome, awesome. Well, that’s great, Betsy. I mean, really, thank you for sharing your experiences on Q2ID, the Quark to InDesign conversion filter from Markzware. I’m glad it’s worked really well for you and that you are a continued, happy customer.
What I’m going to do, now, is show people, over here in Chrome, where they can find you on LinkedIn. And there, you can see her freelance business, Perry Creative, Inc. And you can read more about it, there. But what do you offer exactly, Betsy?
BETSY: Well, since I told you my age, in the beginning, we could talk about how long I’ve been doing this.
DAVID: You have experience!
BETSY: I have picked up a few, little tricks, here and there, yes, in that many years. But, mainly, one of the things that’s so unique is that I’m a copywriter and a designer and so, I’m not working in my own little bubble, in either one of those.
I’m working with a client, for both those areas. And, as a matter of fact, people have a hard time understanding that, because there are very few people who do both of those things.
DAVID: Yeah.
BETSY: So, a lot of clients will hire me as a designer, and then, they forget about asking me to write something, or vice-versa. So, I actually have to kind of get people used to that idea. And it’s not that I don’t work with other writers or work with other designers, on projects, too, but that’s a very unique thing.
And the other thing is I’m not a diva. I’m just not. This is the client’s business, and their product. And I’m going to do my best to try to talk them into the right thing, but it’s always their decision, in the end, so…
DAVID: Right. I think it’s a great mix. I remember working on flyers and brochures, the copyright… No, not the copyright. Well, copyright’s another thing, but getting the copy right.
BETSY: The copywriter.
DAIVD: And then, the layout, and the design, and they’re, sometimes, a big hassle.
BETSY: It is.
DAVID: So, if you have somebody who can do both…
BETSY: It is.
DAVID: Yes. Well, you can give your email. How can people email you?
BETSY: Fine. My email has been the same, since the beginning of time, because that’s how long I’ve been around, the beginning of the internet. My email is lucky1313@cox.net.
DAVID: Excellent! So, that’s where people can get more information, if you’re in the Oklahoma area, or I guess you’ll take work, anywhere in the U.S.
BETSY: Absolutely.
DAVID: Now, thank you, again, Betsy. A pleasure! And you, have a great day!
BETSY: Thank you, David.
About Markzware
Markzware, a privately-held company based in Santa Ana, California, is the leading software publisher providing solutions for printing quality control and desktop publishing conversion tools. Markzware supports major graphic software layout applications used by creative professionals, printers and publishers in the international graphic arts, printing and digital multimedia industries.
Subscribe to the Markzware Mailing List to receive news, product specials, and support for your Markzware products.
Follow Markzware on Twitter.
Like Markzware on Facebook.
Join the Markzware User Group on LinkedIn.
Subscribe to Markzware on YouTube to see many more customer testimonials, industry chats and product demonstrations.
Download Markzware Media Kit materials.
