New here? Read these two in order. First which version of QuarkXPress made this file? — you can answer it yourself in about a minute. Then how to open a .qxd file without QuarkXPress, which maps every route against that answer.
How to open a .qxd file without QuarkXPress
Six real routes, free ones first — LibreOffice Draw, older InDesign, Quark's own converters, a plain text editor — with what each can and cannot do.
Which version of QuarkXPress made this file?
The extension map, and the first-bytes check anyone can run on a Mac or PC without altering the file. The answer decides which routes exist.
"This document cannot be opened by this version of QuarkXPress"
It reads like corruption; it is almost always a version floor. What the bracketed number means, the free converter route, and how to spot real damage.
Old Mac Quark files with no extension
Blank icons, missing extensions, "Unix Executable File". What a resource fork was, what actually got stripped, and how to make the files openable again.
Converting QuarkXPress to InDesign — what actually survives
The routes and their version ceilings, and the honest list: text reflow, fonts, master pages, linked images and XTension content.
Archiving a QuarkXPress back catalogue
For studios and publishers with hundreds of files. Inventory, protect, triage, decide, produce, verify — in that order, with what to keep at the end.
These guides are written to be useful whether or not you ever buy anything from us. Where a free tool does the job, it is named and explained. Where it stops, we say where and why.