[Scribus] Scribus for Windows

[Gregory Pittman]

Clare Kitson wrote:
> I wonder if someone can advise me.
>  
> I'm a total beginner with DTP, and I was hoping to download Scribus in
> the hope of, eventually, publishing a book.
>  
> But, although Wikipedia lists books among Scribus's uses, the Scribus
> website doesn't.  What would be the problems if I did try to use it
> for a book?
I agree with Louis. Perhaps a way to get a better understanding of how
Scribus might be used for a book would be to check the "Success Stories"
on the Wiki:
http://wiki.scribus.net/index.php/Success_stories
As you can see, there are several books that have been done with
Scribus, some with more than 100 pages. TeX/LaTeX/LyX is an alternative
for a book primarily or entirely made of text.
I think Scribus is a bit more intuitive, and certainly allows for much
easier, precise control of various items on a page.
>  
> And, secondly, is the version for Windows actually usable?  In the
> notes I found for 'Before Downloading' I noticed the paragraph:
>  
> This is beta software which is undergoing many code changes daily. 
> While it is fairly stable and usable, caution is advised.  It is not
> recommended yet for production use.  The underlying file format is
> undergoing rapid changes and will not be finished until the 1.3.4 or
> 1.3.5 version is released.
>  
> Does anyone know when that will be?  Is it worth my downloading it or
> should I forget it?

There are various bits of information on the Scribus site that need
updating, and this is one of those. The Windows version is fully
functional and stable, and as we see from a message on the list, works
on Vista in addition to 2000/XP.
1.3.4 and above are currently developmental versions, and therefore
considered less stable than 1.3.3.x -- the latest stable version has
just been released (1.3.3.9) and is available for Windows. Especially
for someone new to Scribus using the stable version is strongly
recommended, in part because the documentation is more up to date (at
least on the Wiki).

So by all means, dive in -- download 1.3.3.9, try it out (note the
requirements). In addition to the documentation that is included with
Scribus, there is the documentation site:
http://docs.scribus.net/
and the Wiki:
http://wiki.scribus.net/index.php/Main_Page
and of course this mailing list.

Greg