[Scribus] Scribus Digest, Vol 41, Issue 7

[Nik]

> Date: Wed, 05 Jul 2006 18:18:29 +0200
> From: Peter Lesterhuis <peterlesterhuis at tiscali.nl>
> Subject: [Scribus] tables
> To: scribus at nashi.altmuehlnet.de
> Message-ID: <44ABE655.6060407 at tiscali.nl>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
> 
> Hi,
> I have written a report which I am editing it now in Scribus 1.4.2.1.
> There are some tables which I find hard to edit properly.
> I can import them into Scribus from OOcalc (via OOdraw and exporting 
> them to table.eps).
> But then I can't change the fonts: importing a table from OOcalc does 
> work, but it is ugly. I would like to apply the paragraph style I am 
> using in this document.
> I know I can build a table out of multiple text frames. Is there another 
> way?
> There is a button "insert table" next to "insert picture"! But I can't 
> make it work. Is there a tutorial on this subject?
> Any suggestions are wellcome.
> Peter.
> 

Hi Peter,

I too have needs for tables in Scribus. I use both the PS image tables, 
as well the Scribus table frames. You are correct that the imported EPS 
tables cannot be changed within Scribus - they are essentially an image. 
So I find I am making more use of the Scribus table frames. I'll give a 
brief summary of what works best for me so far:

Firstly, presuming that your scribus version is 1.2.4.1, then I would 
expect the table button to work fine. You need to click the button to 
select the table tool, then drag to define the table area on your page, 
in the same way you would drag a text or image frame. Once you've 
defined the table frame by dragging, you are presented with a dialog 
which asks you to set the number of columns and rows. In my experience 
you cannot later change these without deleting the table and creating a 
new one, so it is worth the effort to look in your original document (eg 
OpenOffice text document) and get the column and row counts correct.

 From there it is simply a case of importing the contents you want in 
the table cells, and formatting the cells as needed. It took me a bit of 
trial and error to work out a reasonable way to do this.

To keep this post reasonably short, I am posting a short description of 
my scribus table workflow here:

http://nik.homelinux.net/files/scribus-tables.xhtml

Hope this helps!

Cheers!
Nik.