LONDON - November 20, 2003 - (MacExpo) Quark Inc. today announced the forthcoming release of QuarkXPress 6.1, which will be available to QuarkXPress 6 customers at no charge. The QuarkXPress 6.1 update includes many performance enhancements including support for Mac OS X v10.3 "Panther." Better integration with Microsoft Excel QuarkXPress 6.1 will feature improved integration with Microsoft Excel. Users can import text, picture, and chart data directly into QuarkXPress 6.1 from an Excel workbook. An entire spreadsheet or a range of cells can be imported, and QuarkXPress 6.1 will respect hyperlink data contained in the spreadsheet. Convenience and ease of use The Edit Original XTensions module gives Mac OS users the ability to select a picture then open and edit it in the users preferred image editing application. Edit Original is available for Mac OS only. A new font mapping utility lets QuarkXPress 6.1 users create and manage rules to govern automatic font substitution. Font substitution rules can be imported and exported, so rules can be shared among multiple users. Font mapping rules can be applied to QuarkXPress projects and project templates as well as legacy documents and templates. QuarkXPress Passport 6.1 also provides a framework for adding spell checking and hyphenation support for supplemental languages. Operating system requirements QuarkXPress 6.1 requires Mac OS X v10.2 "Jaguar" or later. On the Windows platform, it requires Microsoft Windows 2000 or Windows XP. Pricing and availability The QuarkXPress 6.1 update will be available at no charge to registered users of QuarkXPress 6. Quark has not announced a ship date for QuarkXPress 6.1.