On Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:27:35 +0100 Henrik Larsen <henrikslarsen at hotmail.com> dijo:
> >Hi, new to the list, new to Scribus. I have been watching the video >tutorials and reading pages of text about using this crafty tool, but >some things just are not adding up, and I seem to be looking in the >wrong places. So here I am, with questions no doubt asked hundreds of >times before... > >First, how do I get a simple flowing text? I mean this like text in a >word processor like OpenOffice Writer or MS Word: I put in a text, and >it just continues across the pages? Currently, I need to put a >fullsize textbox into every page (by hand, no less) and connect them >to get a continued text that takes up multiple pages. With fifty pages >of text, that is not very practical. > >Second, I've gone through the Table of Content tutorials, but they >look insanely complex to me. In both OO Writer and MS Word, a ToC is >made by pushing a button, and it collects the headers you have. It >seems to me there must be a way to simply have Scribus check where in >the document a certain 'header' style is used, and insert all of those >automatically (and I assume there is a way it automatically makes them >links, too?). Also, how do I do a ToC where different levels of >headers have their own styles? For example, Header 1 type titles are >bold, Header 2 titles (subsections of the 1s) are italic. > >I hope someone can answer these things. The people at the OpenOffice >forums tell me my expanding layout needs are better met by Scribus >than by Writer, so I hope to find a lot of neat and efficient ways to >use it. I am just tripping over newbie problems, it seems :( As others have noted, the way to make text flow automatically is with automatic frames. Regarding the ToC issues, I can't answer if you are using the stable version (1.3.3.x), as I never used it enough to know if it has a ToC feature. But in 1.3.5.1 there is a script to create a ToC. From your description it sounds as though you are using 1.3.5.1, because my experience is the same as yours - that is, I found it very confusing and limiting. I finally went back to the original OOo text document and created the ToC there, then pasted into Scribus. After finishing the Scribus document I went into the ToC page and manually changed the page numbers. It was faster and less frustrating than trying to get the script to do what I wanted it to do. Having said all of that, I wish to discuss something that newcomers to Scribus usually find confusing. There is a fundamental difference between any text editor and any layout app. Text editors are designed for continuous text flow. Layout apps are page based. In a layout app each page is an object that exists independently. Suppose you have a word processor document of, say, 50 pages. You insert a half-page graphic with text wrap on page 5. The word processor will immediately flow the text out of the way of the graphic and add a half page to the end of the document to hold the additional text. But if you have a similar layout app document and you do the same thing, the number of pages remains the same. When you turn on text wrap for the graphic the text will flow out of the way but, even if all the text is in linked frames, no additional pages are created. In a layout app the page is king and it is up to the user to decide how many there should be. The page-oriented way that layout apps work is a terrific advantage when creating design intensive document. When you place something on a page it stays exactly where you put it. Once you get used to this you will discover that word processors drive you crazy the way stuff is always popping onto the next page. Word processors are great for writing, but frustrating when you try to use them for layout.
