[Scribus] Documentation Updates

[fsanta]

On Tuesday 06 May 2003 19:38, you wrote:
> On Tue, 2003-05-06 at 12:50, fsanta wrote:
> > Hi Peter and thanks for a great job. I think the major things missing are
> > examples. I'm a teacher and am learning all this from nothing and will
> > certainly help when I can piece it all together from our very basic
> > school level. Until then it's really uphill without a few basics. You
> > know, like the publicity ones that mikckeysoft put on the back of their
> > boxes. A heading in big text with colours and two columns with a picture
> > half way down the second are all we'd need to get started. Otherwise it's
> > hard to see what it can do better than OOo. Oh, this sounds so negative
> > but it's certainly not meant to be. On Monday next I start testing it
> > with my students.
> > Cheers, Steve. And with you all the way.
>
> Examples and more substantial sample docs are in order, but I still feel
> the docs are not "done". There are features in the current Scribus which
> are still not documented at all or complete enough to my satisfaction.
> Franz and Paul keep adding useful features, which are sometimes hard to
> explain - like using paths and using bezier curves..
>
> I know where you are coming from, next fall will be taking over as IT
> director for a school which is "wired". This gives me an idea.  What is
> really needed in your case is a "Using Scribus in the Classroom" type
> thing. I think it would be easy for me to put together an outline for
> this pretty quickly. Collaboration is welcome.
>
> IMHO Scribus is an excellent tool to teach the basics of desktop
> publishing, precisely because it lacks the Publisher "we'll do it for
> you better than you can" wizards. As users progress, you can still use
> Scribus to explain more advanced concepts, like typography and vector
> art vs. bitmap art, color management, printing on commercial presses,
> using scripting for automating repetitive tasks etc.
>
> With regard to OOo, I like this application a lot, but at heart it is
> still a word processor. IME, the most DTP like word processor was (is)
> Lotus Word Pro in its day.
>
> Let's keep this discussion going, as I sometimes my focus might be too
> strongly in the area of professional pre-press which is my day time job.
> There is a lot of jargon in DTP, which can be confusing for the
> newcomer.
>
> Regards,
> Peter

Thanks for the last paragraph in particular Peter. OK I'm coming from an 
educational background which had decided to go Linux only just a few weeks 
ago. We realised that we'd made an error as we were unable to supply the dtp 
aspect of the British gcse (14-16 year ols students) course. Until we found 
Scribus that was. All *we* need is to be able to produce a flyer like you get 
under your car windscreen wipers. But it has to have dpt design and 
philosophy rather than wp stuff. Glad you want to keep this thread alive as I 
have always felt that Linux tended to cater for the experts. Paul and Franz 
have done a great job getting us this far. I just want to get it into the 
classroom where I feel the kids will work wonders with it.

I'm in the process of installing the 0.9.9 tarball via ssh on our 18 node SuSE 
lan at school as I speak. Wish me luck!
Cheers, Steve.