[Scribus] inserting a frame into already linked frames

[Nik]

Hi Grag,

Thanks for your response.

> Message: 4
> Date: Sun, 09 Jul 2006 11:14:56 -0400
> From: Gregory Pittman <gpittman at iglou.com>
> Subject: Re: [Scribus] inserting a frame into already linked frames
> To: scribus at nashi.altmuehlnet.de
> Message-ID: <44B11D70.8030903 at iglou.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
> 
> Nik wrote:
> 
>>Hi All,
>>
>>I have encountered this situation in most documents, and still haven't 
>>found a good solution. The issue is that for various reasons, I find I 
>>need to insert a frame somewhere in the middle of an existing set of 
>>linked frames. The problem is that Scribus doesn't seem to allow me to 
>>link my new frame to any frame which has existing links. So the only way 
>>that I have found to successfully insert a frame is to manually unlink 
>>all the frames from the insertion point to the last frame in the chain, 
>>link in my new frame, and then manually re-link all the frames together 
>>that I just had to unlink. If the chain has many frames (if I have 
>>tables, then there can be 50 or more frames invloved, then this is very 
>>tedious.
>>
>>I have looked around for some way to force link or unlink a frame, but 
>>have found nothing so far. Is there something I've missed which makes 
>>this easier?
>>  
> 
> I think the key may be in identifying the last of the linked frames, 
> which I was able to add a linked frame to. You cannot add to anything 
> upstream from the last one.

Why not? It seems to be a useful feature.

> Do not start by selecting 
> the frame you want to link to, it has to be the one you are linking from.

Is this for linking, or unlinking?

Greg, thanks for your advice. I now have two further questions in my mind:

Q1: Why the restriction that I cannot insert (or remove) a frame in the 
middle of a chain? It seems arbitrary, and forces me into a 
unnecessarily time-consuming workflow.

Q2: If I have understood you correctly, and it is intentionally 
impossible to insert or remove a frame in/from the middle of a chain, 
then should I create an RFE to have this as a new feature?

I have at least three situations in which it is certainly more efficient 
to insert a frame into a chain than to add to the end of the chain:

1. I have a chapter of a document which goes over multiple pages. Each 
page therefore has at least one text frame, and these frames are linked 
to flow the chapter over the pages. Interspersed within the text of this 
document are diagrams in image frames and sidebars in text frames, etc. 
In the process of editing, one or more paragraphs are added somewhere in 
the middle of the chapter. When I reimport the new text, the extra text 
causes the diagrams and sidebars to be out of position relative to the 
text. What I want to do is insert a page in the middle of the chapter, 
create a text frame on that new page, and insert the frame somewhere in 
the middle of the chain of linked text frames. But to do this, I have to 
unlink every text frame from the insertion point up to the end of the 
chapter, just so I can link in the new frame, and then ... re-link all 
the previously unlinked frames, in the same order. Lots of work for no 
purpose.
My other option is to insert the new page at the end of the chapter, 
create a text frame on that page, and link it to the end of the chain. 
Now I have to fix all the out-of-position frames. So I have to go to 
each page between the text insertion point and the end of the chapter, 
and cut-and-paste the diagram and sidebar frames and move them, 
typically to a later page. Of course, as I delete each frame, the text 
which previously wrapped around that frame moves up, so it is basically 
guess-work as to where I put the frames, meaning that the task typically 
requires multiple passes over the frames. In fact, I usually perform the 
first pass in last-to-first order, since the only spare space is at the 
end of the chapter, where the new page has been added. Once I've got the 
frames on approximately correct pages, then I can move them around to 
get the best new location.

2. The new text involves inserting a new table. In this case, I cannot 
usefully add the new frame at the end of the chain, since the new frame 
is a table frame. I *must* insert the new table frame in the middle of 
the chain. In this case I am *forced* to go through the 
unlink-just-so-I-can-relink  procedure.

3. A change to the size of a table is needed. This may be due to a 
change in the number of columns or rows in the table, or it may be a 
need to split a table over a page break. In either case, the change to 
the table requires that the old table be deleted, and a new one created. 
Even if this is changed in future so table size can be modified, adding 
or deleting table cells will still often require inserting or removing a 
frame from the middle of a chain.

Currently, to insulate myself from issues with tables, I often cut table 
contents out of incoming documents and put them into separate documents, 
and then wrap the main text around the separate table frames. This 
certainly gives finer control within scribus, but forces extra work onto 
me whenever the updated documents arrive. Keeping the table contents 
inline in the document is significantly simpler and less work at the 
document level, particularly if content changes are occurring relatively 
frequently.

If scribus supported insertion and removal of frames to/from the middle 
of a chain, then I would have significantly more options as to how I 
handled the different situations.

Cheers!
Nik.