[scribus] Ventura Publisher

[John Jason Jordan]

<Copied to unsubscribed poster RLN37 at yahoo.com>

On Thu, 5 Aug 2010 01:42:18 +0200
Baseball Bob <help at scribus.info> dijo:

>Submitted on 08/05/2010
>Submitted by anonymous user: [10.1.5.224]
>
>Submitted values are:
>
>   Name: Baseball Bob
>   Email Address: RLN37 at yahoo.com
>   Subject: Ventura Publisher
>   Message:
>I am trying to drop Windows altogether, and go to Ubuntu.  But I run
>a baseball league for kids every summer, and depend on Ventura
>Publisher ( a WYSIWYG desktop publishing program) to make all
>necessary forms, and to produce good-looking many-page manuals for
>coaches and parents.  I wonder if moving to Scribus would be workable
>for me?  I don't need absolute compatibility with Ventura, but I have
>found Ventura to be very convenient over the years, so would like a
>Linux DTP program that has similar attributes.  Would Scribus be good
>for me?  Or is it mainly just a single-page layout program, that might
>bog down when tackling something like a 35-page user manual for
>example?

You will find that Scribus has pretty much all the capabilities of
Ventura. That is, it has some features that are lacking in Ventura, and
lacks a few that Ventura has. For the use you describe I am pretty sure
you will find Scribus to be an excellent replacement for Ventura.

Having said that, you will experience a learning curve. First, just
switching from Windows to Ubuntu will take a lot of hunting for where
the buttons are and how to do things. And then you will find that
Scribus, while it has the features you need, has a completely different
way of doing things from Ventura. 

Once you get over learning how to do things you will wonder how you
ever put up with Windows/Ventura. But for the first couple of months
you should expect a fair amount of confusion. This list will help with
Scribus, and the Ubuntu forums are accustomed to questions from
beginners new to Linux. 

I recommend installing Ubuntu alongside Windows at first. Ubuntu has a
program called Wubi that facilitates this. Once you have Ubuntu
installed alongside Windows you can install Scribus on it. Then you can
take one or more of your old forms and manuals and reproduce them in
Scribus. This will be a good exercise to introduce you to the Scribus
way of doing things, yet without the risk of missing a deadline. You
will still have Windows and Ventura if you need them.