[scribus] Size of text frame compared to contents

[Christoph Schäfer]

Am Samstag, 18. Juli 2009 20:33:39 schrieb John Culleton:
> On Saturday 18 July 2009 11:03:28 am D. R. Evans wrote:
> > Christoph Schäfer said the following at 07/18/2009 01:37 AM :
> > > Am Freitag, 17. Juli 2009 16:11:45 schrieb D. R. Evans:
> > >> D. R. Evans said the following at 07/16/2009 04:23 PM :
> > >>> I'm sure this is answered somewhere in the manual, but I
> > >>> can't find it (actually, that's my biggest complaint about
> > >>> the manual... I just cannot find stuff in it; maybe I'm just
> > >>> too used to the TeXbook's index).
> > >>
> > >> I think I should make it clear, having seen how this thread
> > >> has developed, that I chose the TeXbook merely as an example
> > >> of a book with a wonderful index -- I don't think I have ever
> > >> failed to find what I wanted after consulting its index. It
> > >> had nothing to do with the fact that the TeXbook happens to be
> > >> about putting characters on a page.
> > >>
> > >> Perhaps the following figures are telling:
> > >>
> > >> Scribus manual length: ~430 pages
> > >> Scribus index length: ~6 pages
> > >>
> > >> TeX manual length: ~455 pages
> > >> TeX index length: ~25 pages
> > >
> > > As one of the main authors of the manual I have to say that the
> > > index is always up for improvements. However, I don't think
> > > it's a good idea to compare the index of a Scribus book with a
> > > (La)TeX book. After all, (La)TeX
> >
> > I think that maybe you're looking at this from the point of view
> > of an index producer rather than that of an index consumer.
> >
> > The consumer wants to know how to do X. The number of different X
> > things that he might want to do is (presumably) more or less the
> > same for TeX and for Scribus. If that assumption is correct, then
> > it should be more or less equally as difficult to find out how to
> > do something in the two cases; but as an index consumer
> > unfortunate experience leaves me in no doubt that I am vastly
> > more likely to be able to figure out how to do what I want from
> > the TeXbook index than from the Scribus index.
> >
> > Having whined, though, I am not sure how to improve the Scribus
> > index. If I look at it form the point of view of an index
> > producer, it's not at all obvious how to make it more useful :-(
> >
> >   Doc
>
> I have purchased a copy of the book. If someone would release to me
> the  final pdf of the interior pages I could index it again, making
> sure that present items were included but adding more.  I have done
> many indexes. I would do this gratis.

Thank you very much for your offer, John. While we don't plan any changes to 
the current edition of the manual, this may very well become an option for 
the next one (which will cover 1.4).

Cheers

Christoph