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Key to the new version is a new interface designed to reduce the click (and time) it takes to complete tasks.

A new Picture Content tools lets users grab, rotate, and scale images in real-time without typing in numbers or switching from tool to tool. The smart Item and Text Content tools aim to reduce the number of times a designer has to manually switch tools. Rethought Bézier Pen tools allow users to draw illustrations directly in the application.

There are new buttons for instant access to master pages and exporting to PDF, EPS, SWF, and HTML, plus new split-view buttons, enhanced contextual menus, and customisable active pasteboards. And the Measurements palette provides access to more functions, including controls for on-the-fly drop-shadow modification.

Users can now drag and drop text and pictures from the desktop, Adobe Bridge and iPhoto; in fact any application that supports drag and drop. Conversely you can drag content from QuarkXPress to Photoshop and other applications for direct editing.

Typographers get hanging characters with paragraph-by-paragraph control, multiple and easy-to-use

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presets, and the ability to share hanging character settings. There are also new controls over baseline grid settings, with the ability to apply unique grid settings to individual boxes, and a Grid Styles feature designed to make it easier to keep documents consistent.

Quark Interactive Designer - Quark's Flash authoring environment - is now an integrated component of QuarkXPress, enabling one-stop design across print, websites and Flash. No programming skills required, says Quark, to add video, audio, animation and interactivity to layouts and export them as Flash content.=

"QuarkXPress 8 demonstrates our understanding of the way designers work today, and underscores Quark's commitment to continually providing innovative software that pushes the design experience forward," said Tim Banister, general manager of Desktop Technology for Quark. "We have combined highly intuitive software with the design control elements that are critical in the creative process, and as a result believe QuarkXPress 8 will not only be a seamless upgrade for existing QuarkXPress users, but the most accessible professional page-layout software for new users to learn as well."

QuarkXPress 8 will be available within the next 60 days. Users who purchase or upgrade to QuarkXPress 7 between 29 May and 1 August will be eligible to upgrade to QuarkXPress 8 for free. And any users who purchased upgrades to or full products of QuarkXPress 7 between 1 May and 29 May 2008, will also be eligible for a free upgrade. Both offers are subject to conditions.