Scribus

[baron]

Hi

I don't like to criticize open source software as I realise how much work goes into creating it. However there have been a lot of reviews extolling the virtues of Scribus and there is no doubt that for what it can do it is very good. However as a Desktop Publishing software it is decidedly lacking particularly when dealing with multipage documents.

I am talking about reports and books which will have almost none or very few pictures. When creating multiple pages why cannot there be an option to add a text box to those pages. When you create 400 or 600 pages it is a real pain to have to create a text box for each page. Also why cannot it be assumed that all the style of all imported text is body text..

Basically i would like the developers to seriously look at how to turn Scribus into a fully fledged desktop publishing software.and not just suitable for posters, newsletters and cards.

Thanks for the opportunity to moan.

grabro

[johnhudson]

It's horses for courses - LyX/Latex if you want continuous documents (I've just produced one that is over 1,200 pages long) - and Scribus for anything with a lot of colour - newsletters, posters, etc.

Though this report http://www.bradlug.co.uk/stanbury-hill-project/ doesn't say so, the covers were produced in Scribus and the report in LyX/LaTeX - and it really looks stunning.

They are both desktop publishing programs; they just serve different needs.

[wyliecoyoteuk]

Can't you just create a new master page with a text box and the attributes that you want and apply that to all pages?

[towy71]

I've read that a lot of authors use scrivener for which there is a beta version for Linux in that link.
Much more suitable for editing long documents, scripts etc

[johnhudson]

The list of facilities in scrivener is interesting but limited compared with LyX; it has a couple of facilities that LyX does not have that may be useful to some authors but it lacks a wide range of features which, in my experience as a copy-editor, are widely used by authors.

[UsrBinSomething]

There's also Kile, which is the KDE version of Lyx. I currently use XML for writing out longer documents. I'm currently converting a PDF of the US constitution into XML, and will transform it into printable HTML. For beginners I'd try Scrivener though. Lyx and Kile do take a bit of getting used to.

[johnhudson]

For beginners I'd try Scrivener though. Lyx and Kile do take a bit of getting used to.

Not my experience with LyX; I just started using it when I discovered it in 2000 and it was a real joy. The problems happen when people want to do something they can/have to do in a traditional word-processor and don't realise that either:
1 they don't need to do it or
2 it requires LaTeX knowledge because it is something out of the ordinary.

It look me years before I started using any LaTeX in LyX and I was producing beautiful documents with maths, figures and tables such that I couldn't produce anywhere else.

[ChriThor]

I've read that a lot of authors use scrivener for which there is a beta version for Linux in that link.
Much more suitable for editing long documents, scripts etc

Nice. Will take a look.

[guy]

If it's just a mass of text with a few pictures, why not use LibreOffice Writer?

[nelz]

I've read that a lot of authors use scrivener for which there is a beta version for Linux in that link

Time limited, includes bundled Qt libraries that clash with system versions - some of the many things that make closed source software such a joy to work with.

I'd rather devote the time I'd spend dealing with such problems to learning something that will still work next year, like LyX.

[towy71]

I wasn't recommending it, but I know several authors that use the Mac version and swear by it rather than at it

I can barely string a sentence together so joe, which uses the same keystrokes as Wordstar, works fine for me

[wyliecoyoteuk]

Actually, Master pages does not work, mainly because it is for producing a set background arrangement, such as a header, sorry.
The way to create it the way you want, is when creating the document, select "automatic text frames"
This will automatically create a linked text frame for each page.