A Guide to QuarkXPress 2022

Working with Multiple Languages

QuarkXPress is available in several language configurations. If your language configuration supports it, you can:

  • Open and edit projects that use any supported character language. Character language is an attribute that you can apply to text to indicate which hyphenation and spell checking rules should be used with that text. You can apply character language at the character level — so even if a sentence uses words in two different languages, every word can be hyphenated and spell checked correctly. For more information, see "Applying a character language."

  • (Windows only) Change the user interface and keyboard commands to any supported program language. Program language refers to the language used in application menus and dialog boxes. Program language affects only the user interface; it does not affect spell checking and hyphenation. For more information, see "Changing the program language."

  • (Mac OS X only) The program language is determined by your OS language at the time of install. You can change the UI language by changing the display language of OS X in System Preferences and restarting QuarkXPress.

Irrespective of whether East Asian functionality is enabled in Preferences, QuarkXPress can open, display, and output a project that uses East Asian features. However, you can only edit text that uses East Asian features if your East Asian Preference is enabled (QuarkXPress/Edit > East Asian).

Applying a character language

The character language attribute determines which dictionary is used for spell checking and which rules and exceptions are used for hyphenation. When you check the spelling of text that uses different languages, each word is checked using the assigned language dictionary. When automatic hyphenation is enabled for a project that uses different character languages, each word is hyphenated using the appropriate hyphenation rules and hyphenation exceptions for that language.

To apply a character language: 

  • Use the Language drop-down menu in the Edit Character Style Sheet dialog.

  • Use the Language drop-down menu in the Character tab of the Measurements palette.

  • Use the Convert Project Language dialog (Utilities > Convert Project Language...).

Changing the program language

To specify the program language:

  • (Windows only) Choose an option from the Edit > Program Language submenu.

  • (Mac OS X only) The program language is determined by your OS language at the time of install. You can change the UI language by changing the display language of OS X in System Preferences and restarting QuarkXPress.

Your menus, dialog boxes, and palettes change to the chosen language. Keyboard commands are based on the program language.

The program language has no effect on hyphenation and spell checking.

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