[Scribus] Scribus Digest, Vol 53, Issue 14 Item 6 - importing WORD

[John R. Culleton]

On Thursday 12 July 2007 04:56, Jfo wrote:
> Hi
>
> I believe that for Scribus to be really useful in the general DPT
> community it must import Word and Word Publisher text and graphics
> WITH FORMATTING.
>
Do you mean Microsoft Publisher? I didn't think it was in serious use.

I can go half way with your request. I certainly want to have italics, 
bolding and paragraph breaks preserved when I import MSword. But I 
don't want the rest of the layout features. If I wanted a word 
processor type layout I would use a word processor.  Customers send 
me doc files which I immediately convert to either rtf and then LaTeX 
(two steps) or plain text, depending on the frequency of italics.  
Then I build the layout properly in either pdftex or Context.  

With Scribus it is possible to import a doc file (very slow) or 
convert to odt.  If it weren't for those pesky italics I would just 
go for saving a doc file as plain text and flowing that in.  

What Scribus needs most is a table formatter. TeX has several. Context 
alone has three.   (Knuth plain tex, Wichura TaBle, Natural tables.) 
I also use the TeXsis table writer by itself for formatting invoices. 
so on table writing the score is TeX 4, Scribus 0.

> There are other low-cost DTP offerings which need this feature -
> but at least they have a full booklet mode. Lacking both, Scribus
> is way behind.
>
I agree. However it is not difficult with psutils to create a booklet 
from Scribus PostScript output. 

> Using a mixture of Windows and RISCOS I can achieve a conversion
> which is essentially Word/Publisher -> pdf -> RISCOS DRAW ->SVG  -
> surely Windows can offer something here. Complete RTF import would
> help.
>
> The alternatives are to standardise on Word Publisher! (please no!)
> or Ventura (expensive).
>
There is always TeX which is free. I do novels, pamphlets etc. all the 
time with TeX. For pamphlets I either use plain tex plus psutils or 
Context which has extensive prepress layout capabilities. But I start 
off with Linux as my base OS. IMO LInux is more Open Source friendly 
than MSWIn. And its cheaper :<). 

Instead of Ventura which is basically on life support you could try 
InDesign, also expensive.  But like you I am waiting for Scribus to 
grow up a little more. 


-- 
John Culleton