[scribus] Text Column Styles

[a.l.e]

hi nik,

sorry, i didn't read your mail to the end... i will probably do it 
soon... but so early in the morning, no way :-)

but i have already two comments:

- frame styles will probably be implemented for 1.6

- probably, what you need are not frame styles but guides! if you shift 
click into a rectangle delimited by guides (and margins) the frame will 
take all the available place...
   so: set up a your columns in the master page as guides and use them! 
:-) (or, even better: create a grid of guides to format your magazine... 
yes, i'm swiss...)


ciao
a.l.e

> Hi All,
>
> It's been a while since I posted to the Scribus mailing list, and in 
> that time I, and those to whom I recommend scribus, have been (very) 
> happily Scribusing away :o)
>
> One issue that I repeatedly come across is that of consistent frame 
> size and position settings.
>
> Whenever a new frame is created, a number of settings have to be 
> manually set - and often to predetermined 'correct' values. It would 
> be really helpful if this information could be entered once, and then 
> easily reused by reference.
>
> So I am wondering if there is a feature in Scribus already that I have 
> simply missed, or should I be submitting a feature request?
>
> As an example, for a newsletter project that I have been involved 
> with, we have determined that for the A4 pages we use, most frames 
> (and almost *all* text frames) should have widths in multiples of 65mm 
> - which comprises 60mm for the text, and 5mm for the gap between the 
> text and the left and right borders (ie, two 2.5mm gaps); and 
> therefore multi-column frames should have the column gap set to 5mm.
> And from this along with desired gaps to page edges, comes the 
> 'correct' X-pos settings for most frames: 7.5mm, 72.5mm, or 137.5mm 
> (this gives us a total gap of 10mm from page edge to left edge of the 
> text).
>
> Hence for any frame (text or image) a single-column frame should be 
> 65mm, a double-column frame should be 130mm, and a triple-column frame 
> should be 195mm; and should have its X-pos set to one of 7.5mm, 72.5mm 
> or 137.5mm.
>
> I had the newsletter author trained to (mostly) set the frame widths 
> and positions correctly, resulting in nicely consistent pages.
> Now two new volunteers have come in to produce the newsletter, and I 
> am finding it very difficult to get them to set the column properties 
> in any way consistently.
>
> Obviously what would be really useful is some feature that allows me 
> to set this information into the newsletter template in some way, so 
> the authors are relieved of having to:
>
> a) remember to manually set the correct width and position of each new 
> frame as they create it
> b) remember what the actual settings should be:
>     i) frame width;
>     ii) text gap settings;
>     iii) column gap setting for multi-column frames;
>     iv) x-pos to be the 'correct' (and difficult-to-remember) value.
>
> I have looked for something like 'Frame Style' or 'Column Style' and 
> not found anything. I have also looked for a 'Default Page setup', and 
> in 'Document setup' but found nothing really that seems to help.
>
> So far the only thing I *have* found is that I can set the default 
> column gap in the 'Document Setup | Tools" tab.
>
> I *could* also place a full-height, three-column text frame on all of 
> the master pages, but while that would help with text columns, it 
> would create almost as many new problems as it would solve.
>
> So, have I missed some (newer) feature here?
> I have most of my experience with the 1.3 series - is there something 
> in 1.4 or even 1.5 that I could use?
>
> If there is nothing currently that helps, then what do people see as 
> the 'most appropriate' way to implement such a feature?
>
> S1. Implement a new 'Column' style.
>    * Multiple Column styles could be created using the style editor;
>    * One of these styles could be designated as the 'default' - per 
> document, per master page, or both;
>    * The user can apply any Column style to any frame;
>    * Settings would include width, x-pos, text gaps, column gap, etc.
>
> S2. Implement a new 'Frame' style.
>    * Multiple Frame styles could be created using the style editor;
>    * One of these styles could be designated as the 'default' - per 
> document, per master page, or both;
>    * The user can apply any Frame style to any frame;
>    * settings available in these would include most of the properties 
> for a Frame;
>       - including parameters that are specific to particular types of 
> frame - ie a Frame style could have settings for both text frames and 
> image frames.
>
> S3. Implement a new 'Page Style'
>    * Multiple Page styles could be created using the style editor;
>    * One of these styles could be designated as the 'default' - per 
> document, per master page, or both;
>    * The user can apply any Page style to any page;
>    * Settings would include layout information such as standard frame 
> x-pos, width, as well as other page-oriented parameters.
>
> S4. Add additional settings to the 'Document Setup' data.
>    * The settings are only per-document.
>
> From the above, my preferred implementation is the Frame style - it is 
> the most flexible and powerful, and is the best fit to scribus' 
> current model (reusable settings for various things defined in 'styles').
>
> The next best would probably be the Column style - it is basically a 
> cut-down Frame style with just a subset of properties for basic width 
> and positioning of any frame.
>
> After that comes the Page style - this also fits well into Scribus' 
> current model, but I'm not sure what other settings would be useful in 
> a page style (over and above what would be in a Frame style).
> In addition, a page style would seem to be too coarse a tool - how 
> would one create a frame that did not comply with the page settings? 
> For example, an image frame centred between two text frames.
>
> Least appealing is the Document Setup option, since it can only set 
> values per document.
>
> Of course, a combination of more than one of the solutions could be 
> implemented, with Frame style plus additional Document Setup 
> parameters being a great option.
>
> What do others think?
>
> Thanks in advance for any and all responses,
>
> Cheers!
> Nik
>
> ___
> Scribus Mailing List: scribus at lists.scribus.net
> Edit your options or unsubscribe:
> http://lists.scribus.net/mailman/listinfo/scribus
> See also:
> http://wiki.scribus.net
> http://forums.scribus.net