[Scribus] Beginner's Questions on using Scribus

[Louis Desjardins]

Sravani Mudumbi a ?crit :
> 
> Hi. I am new to this forum. I am a beginner user of scribus. I actually 
> just started using it about two months ago, which is when I subscribed 
> to this mailing list. All of the questions that I usually see in the 
> mails are much more complicated than what I am working with. my 
> questions may sound stupid. I am trying to make a school newspaper with 
> Scribus. Although I'm not very computer savvy, I've managed to put it 
> together. I've had many questions during the time I was still 
> learning how to use it and I still am. I figured I'd save all of my 
> questions to the end. I'm almost done with it now. here they are:
> 
> (1) How can I shape the text of an article around a picture?

This is a feature to come. There are workarounds. I would ask that you 
browse the wiki and/or this list archives to find more. Basically, you 
can edit the shape of the content of an image in Properties > Shape > 
Edit Shape and ask Scribus to make the text flow around this shape 
instead of around the bounding box itself.

> 
> (2) What's up with the pictures? Why is not letting me put pictures I've 
> obtained from the internet? I understand that they have to be of a 
> certain quality for scribus to support them. Well what can I do in my case?

What do you mean exactly? Scribus can import lots of pics formats. To 
get a pic into Scribus you need to draw a picture frame and then right 
click on it and go to the "get image" contextual menu.

>
> (3) How can make the first letter of an article big, big enough to match 
> three lines of the article. Like you see in the newspapers?

This is called a drop cap and is readily available from the Paragraph 
Stylesheet menu. There, you can specify the number of lines for your 
drop caps.

> 
> (4) When writing an article, I usually put the title in a separate text 
> box, just so that the spacing problems would be avoided and I can move 
> it around to how much ever space i want between the title and the text. 
> Is there a way that I put the text and title in one box and make it a 
> bit easier or is it just not possible?

It actually depends on your layout. With stylesheets, you can put a 
header in the same frame as the text. But this header will have to be 
the same width as the text. Otherwise, use 2 separate text frames. There 
is no other way.

> 
> (5) Sometimes when I'm working on Scribus for more than say 2 hours, it 
> goes into a crazy mode, where it doesn't let me click on anything. If i 
> click on the text box, it'll automatically let me edit it, which it 
> doesn't normally do. If i click outside it, there's the 'move object' 
> cursor that just appears and doesn't let me make changes to to the box. 
> It wont let you select the object. What can I do to fix this problem?

Do you save your work regularly (every 5-10 minutes?)... Otherwise, 
someone else on this list will help you on this one. :)

> 
> I dont have the facility to work with scribus everywhere i go, because 
> the computer I have at my school doesn't let me install new programs on 
> it. They use many publishing programs themselves. But I've already grown 
> accustomed to Scribus. I know that I could convert it into pdf and then 
> print it out over there. But i wouldn't be able to make changes to it, 
> if I see something wrong with the print (without having to come back to 
> my computer, etc).  In order to print it out at the copy center is there 
> a way I can open the document in microsoft publisher and make changes to 
> it.

There is no way to do that.

> 
> I hope that is not too many questions at once.

Just fine!
> 
> i'd greatly appreciate any response

HTH
> 
> Sravani M.

Louis
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Scribus mailing list
> Scribus at nashi.altmuehlnet.de
> http://nashi.altmuehlnet.de/mailman/listinfo/scribus


-- 
Louis Desjardins
Mardigrafe inc.
T 514 934 1353
F 514 934 3698
http://www.mardigrafe.com