quark express

Unless you have decided to become a publisher, either of yourself or someone else, you should really never have need of QuarkXPress, Adobe PageMaker, Adobe InDesign or even Microsoft Publisher. When you decide to design and publish your book, you really enter a different world.

Most of the book publishers I know (including myself) use Adobe InDesign and Acrobat for our publishing chores. InDesign is a great layout program for long works like books and Acrobat allows me to assemble the chapters, cover, and other material into a single file for printing or for downloading as a PDF eBook. I also use InDesign to export the rough version of my ePub eBooks (Digital Editions). Then I open the ePub using Microsoft Expressions to edit the xhtml and css files in order to simplify them, apply uniform styles, and prepare the links and table of contents. At present, you just can't expect a paper-based publishing program to automatically generate a great ePub.

If writing is your job, use a good text editor and don't waste time with the design!

Newspaper still use it for layout. They are the only ones that can afford the program which runs into the thousands of dollars. Most writer couldn't afford it.