[scribus] Scribus and DTP classes

[Gerard Cunningham]

On Sat, 2010-12-04 at 20:20 -0800, John Jason Jordan wrote:
> On Sun, 05 Dec 2010 02:18:01 +0000
> Gerard Cunningham <gerard at faduda.net> dijo:
> 
> >It's not just DTP/printing. There are an awful lot of people out there
> >writing, who have no idea how to write. I'm a freelance journalist, and
> >as more traditional work dries up, I've been considering giving
> >tutorials/seminars on things that seem basic to me, but exotic to
> >others. Basic public relations skills like how to write a press
> >release, aimed at community group PROs; DTP for groups producing small
> >magazines & leaflets, even the basics of putting a news story together.
> 
> If my idea goes anywhere, one of the first tasks is to define what is
> to be included and what is not. In my presentation I decided to discuss
> some basics of DTP before getting into Scribus because I thought it
> would be difficult to explain what a feature of Scribus does if the
> user doesn't know why it is needed. Maybe we need three courses: Intro
> to DTP, Features of Scribus, and How to Write. Or even four, because
> I'd also like to introduce people to concepts of good typography, e.g.,
> setting "am" and "pm" in small caps. But even one subject is a massive
> undertaking. Perhaps we should focus only on Scribus, at least at the
> beginning. 

Don't get me wrong, I didn't mean to encourage mission creep, only
saying that there are a lot of people out there working in the dark, and
any classes/courses would definitely meet a need.

By all means focus on the essentials of DTP/using Scribus.

> >There's definitely a market for it, and more than enough people in need
> >of instruction to go round.
> 
> One reason people don't take classes and learn how to do things better
> is because they're too cheap or broke to pay for it. I thought that my
> online school should be free, as in free and open source. But another
> reason people don't take classes is because they are lazy. And the most
> important reason people don't take classes is because they think they
> already know everything they need to know about the subject.

YMMV, but my experience is that when a local voluntary group is set up
(and it was those I was thinking of as needing/wanting instruction) the
"important" posts of chair, secretary and treasurer are filled first,
and then they look around the room and pick some sucker to take care or
PR. It's treated as an afterthought, then they wonder why they're not
getting any exposure in the press. After all, they faxed in a hand
written notice to the local paper.


-- 
Gerard Cunningham
Journalist
(086) 607 3060
Kildare, Co Kildare