Hi,

I've got an old copy of Quark Express that my missus wants loading on her iMac. Only problem is that it's on floppies and the iMac of course has no floppy drive.

Seems like I'd have to pay £50ish for a USB floppy drive which would then be instantly redundant. Just wondered if there's another way to do this, like copying the disk images via my PC to an Appleshare folder or something. Can't imagine this approach would work without some low-level tweaking though...

Cheers,
Gareth

I dont know much about MAC's but what aobut getting them burnt onto a CD by someone with a MAC? or borrow a FDD?

Older versions of Quark used the floppy disk for the license file. So the CD route doesn't work. I don't believe the PC route would work but it's worth a try. There is a program on most Mac's called i think disk image. It allows you to have an image of a floppy disk on the desktop without having the disk. If you can get the s/w to read the appleshare it might work...

It been a long time since I used my Mac, but there is a program, I think its by Apple, to make disk images. Once made there was another program that you could use to mount all the disk images onto the desktop. I have installed many disk based software this way.

H

Imation do a USB FDD (in funky colours too ;) )

Thanks for the input. So maybe I need to:

(1) find a disk image utility on the PC and create an image file from each of the Quark floppies,

(2) copy the image files to my Appleshare folder (on NT, File Services for Macintosh),

(3) copy the image files from the Appleshare folder to my Mac desktop...

At this point, I don't think the Mac will immediately recognise the files as disk images, because they were created on the PC - b0llocks...

Compared to all this, £50 for a USB floppy drive is looking more and more reasonable.

G

The Mac does read CDs burned in ISO format on a PC (ie standard CD format). I do this all the time with my iMac DV.

Simon.

Would it not be possible to network a PC to the iMac and map a drive on the iMac to the floppy drive of the PC? Might need some freeware/shareware utils on one end or the other to cope with the different file systems?

You have a few options.

1: USB floppy drive

2: network the mac to another mac with floppy drive and do the install that way

3: burn the floppies onto CD (need a mac with floppy drive for this)

4: Get newer copy of XPRESS on CD.

umm, can't think of anything else, well I can but it's not legit so won't mention it here.

Markus is right about your options. What version of Quark is it and do you have the manuals ? I've got copies of Adobe Indesign 1.5 and 2.0 if you fancy.


AllanB

Allan,

The disks are for 3.1, plus I have a set to upgrade to 3.32. No manuals...

Not really worried about how "legitimately" I sort this as it is only so that my missus can work on her college assignments at home. Plus I've already forked out £££s for Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver etc (at least they're worthwhile programs, unlike Quark from what I have heard).

I've tried the usual demo copy + crack route but not found anything useful so far.

G

OK I'll see what I can do. Give me a few days.


AllanB

ttt

AllanB - d'you find anything?

Thanks,
Gareth

Working on it. Hope to make some progress tomorrow.


AllanB

Upgrades require a unique validation code that in generated by Quark in Switzerland. it is likely that you will not be able to upgrade to Quark 5.0 from version 3.X . You can only get an upgrade if the original version is registered under your details. Quark keep a database and log all of the registration details.

I know about this as I had to negotiate with Quark to allow us, MacWarehouse, to sell the upgrades rather than dealing with Quark.

Don't think you need a dongle for anything other than Quark passport which is the multilingual version.

Educational prices are available in the Uk but ONLY directly from Quark and you'll have to fill in numerous forms , whihcv they will then check out and verify . You'll need to be an officially recognised education establishment not involved in the production of any product for sales using Quark Xpress eg Cambridge University Press would not qualify.


AllanB

Thanks for the info. I'll contact Quark re the ed discount - my wife is a full-time student and needs this for her studies. Depending on the discounted price maybe I'll cough for a full copy...

Cheers,
Gareth

Pretty certain the lab pack is a 10 user pack at around 2 grand !! Could be wrong though.

Why not go the Adobe InDesign Route ?

AllanB

AllanB,

The single student copy price for Quark XPress Passport is £275. I've just checked with Quark Europe and I can now order 5.0 at this price direct from them.

It has to be Quark rather than InDesign as that is what is used at the college.

Thanks for your help anyway.

Cheers,
Gareth

AllanB (or anyone),

Do you know if the 4.1 or 5.0 upgrades of Quark XPress require the older version to be installed first, or just for the serial number to be known?

I'm thinking of buying the upgrade, especially if I don't actually have to install the old 3.1/3.2 copy first. Ideally I'd just install the upgrade then type in the serial number (printed on the old floppies) when prompted... does this sound like the way it works?

None of these versions need a dongle as well, do they? I'd hate to fork out the cash to find out I needed a dongle as well as the old disks...

Finally, I notice that Quark do educational discounts in the US. Do you know if this is available in the UK as well?

Thanks,
Gareth

[Edited by gareth - 3/8/2002 10:47:29 AM]