OpenType fonts on Macs vs. PCs

I'm looking at having PCs (XP) and Macs (OSX) (or slight possibility just all
PCs at which point it wouldn't matter) interact with each other. Where PCs would
write a story and it would be pulled onto a Quark 6.52 or InDesign CS2 document.
From my internal testing here with Quark 4.11, it appears that a good portion of
our Font Folio 9 (postscript) fonts we already own have reflow issues when going
back and forth between Mac and PC. OpenType solves exactly this problem correct?
There should never be any reflow when using OpenType fonts and going back and
forth between Macs and PCs right?
Also, if we have to go with Quark 6.52 (due to vendor limitations, not my
choice, I want InDesign), Quark says that 6.52 only "support open Type
fonts partially. As a result you won't be able to use special characters which
are beyond 255 character limit". Does that mean I would have font problems,
or we just wouldn't be able to use the new fancy extras in OpenType fonts?

rich,

AFAIK, you should not have had reflow problems if you used exact matches of
PostScript fonts from the same foundry. But if I recall correctly, some
characters may not match up precisely. For example, you can have fi and fl
ligatures on the Mac, but not on Windows with PostScript Type 1 fonts. Or you
may be using faux bold or italics in Windows (faux-anything is a bad idea). Also
important: all font-related application preferences must match on both sides of
the platform fence.

OpenType should not pose a problem as the exact same fonts are shared between
platforms.

While InDesign would be a better choice, particularly if you need close
integration with other Adobe products, why QuarkXPress 6.52? XPress is at
version 7x.

But it is true that you would not have access to many of the glyphs in XPress 6.
Not just ligatures or swashes. But, again, if I recall correctly, a number of
the SC/OS/etc. fonts are now integrated into the OpenType fonts, and you will no
longer be able to access them in XPress 6.x -- you need 7.x. They are no longer
sold as separate fonts.

Bottom line: InDesign or XPress 7.x.

rich,

You should not have many reflow problems if you used exact matches of PostScript
fonts from the same foundry. That said, if I recall correctly, some characters
may not match up precisely. For example, you can have fi and fl ligatures on the
Mac, but not on Windows with PostScript Type 1 fonts. Or you may be using faux
bold or italics in Windows (faux-anything is a bad idea). Also important: all
font-related application preferences must match on both sides of the platform
fence.

OpenType should not pose a problem as the exact same fonts are shared between
platforms.

While InDesign would be a better choice, particularly if you need close
integration with other Adobe products, why QuarkXPress 6.52? XPress is at
version 7x.

But it is true that you would not have access to many of the glyphs in XPress 6.
Not just ligatures or swashes. But, again, if I recall correctly, a number of
the SC/OS/etc. fonts are now integrated into the OpenType fonts, and you will no
longer be able to access them in XPress 6.x -- you need 7.x. They are no longer
sold as separate fonts.

Bottom line: InDesign or XPress 7.x.

Maybe you need other vendors. <g>

But font issues go away if you simply save your files as PDFs for output. Does
that make sense for you?