[Scribus] spellcheck for Scribus

[John Beardmore]

Craig Ringer wrote:

> Users who're doing the writing and layout themselves, though, will 
> probably find it more convenient to be able to edit directly in Scribus 
> - and really, there's nothing wrong with that.

Thanks heavens for a sense of perspective !


> For a big body of text 
> you're better off with a word processor, but there are definitely times 
> it's more efficient to just put together some content directly in the 
> DTP app.

I think it depends.  My experiences of working on big documents in word 
have not been good, especially if there are significant numbers of 
pictures.  This is what drove me to Pagemaker back in the days when a 
P/200 machine was a big beast.

Recently I've not found editing a 50+ page document with lots of 
pictures easy in OO on my laptop either, (1.8 GHz P4 CPU, a gig of 
memory), though I grant that the people who wrote the document in OO on 
P/III boxes in the first place seemed to manage OK.  It may be a laptop 
/ OS / OO problem, but none the less, this is what drove me to Scribus.

I really think though, that it depends where the text is destined for. 
If layout doesn't matter, and the document is simple, a wp is fine, but 
if layout matters and you want to maintain it as the document develops, 
wp is a pain in the bum.

And some wps, e.g. Word, seem to have some quite pathological habits 
like reformatting a document depending on the configuration of the 
printer selected.  I've never known a DTP environment indulge in any 
such nonsense !  Given that there are some respects in which DTP is the 
better environment for the development of some kinds of work, I don't 
see why there is such condemnation of building documents from scratch in 
the DTP environment.


> Additionally, DTP newbies will probably do this no matter what 
> people advise, and aren't going to be stopped by the lack of a spelling 
> checker.

You make that sound like a character defect.

I suspect that most people who embark on the DTP path don't do so for 
the fun of having a new toy, but because they've hit the buffers trying 
to produce the documents they want in wp environment.

They may well start as I did, by pasting in material from word processed 
material, but later documents were started from scratch in the DTP 
environment, to no disadvantage that I could see, save the spell 
checkers being harder to use in Pagemaker and InDesign!

It seems to me that peoples use of DTP this way, is as valid as anybody 
elses, even if they tend not to have press room staff and work flow.


Cheers, J/.
-- 
John Beardmore, MSc EDM (Open), B.A. Chem (Oxon), CMIOSH, AIEMA, MEI
Managing Director, T4 Sustainability Limited. http://www.T4sLtd.co.uk/
Carbon Trust Consultant: Energy Audit, Carbon Footprint, Design Advice
Energy Efficiency Accreditation Scheme Registered Assessor
P:0845 4561332  F:0870 0522417  M:07785 563116  Skype:t4sustainability