Navigate through your tables in half the time (QuarkXPress 5/6/7)

Navigating through QuarkXPress tables can seem awkward at first, but it’s simple if you keep a few things in mind. You’re probably used to pressing the [tab] key to send your cursor to the next table cell, but in QuarkXPress this doesn’t work. Instead, it creates a tab stop in the active cell. To navigate your cursor to the next cell in QuarkXPress without using your mouse, press [control][tab]. It works for both the Mac and Windows, but doesn’t work in version 6 if you’re in a linked cell.

If you’re working on a QuarkXPress table and press [option][tab] ([Shift][Tab] in Windows), you’ll end up with a right-indent tab in the cell you’re in. This is the same as when you press [option][tab] in a text box.

If those key commands don’t work for you, here’s another way to move from one cell to another. Use the Arrow keys to move your cursor from one cell to the next. Once again, the exception to this is when you’re in a linked cell in QuarkXPress 6. In that case, you can unlink the cell with the Unlinking Tool, same as you would unlink two linked text boxes.