[scribus] a new ebook

[ale rimoldi]

hi johan,

nice list.


> > please tell me what *i* should do instead of spending time on that
> > plugin.

> PDF X/1-A:2001 asap. This is planned for 1.5 but I don't know how long
> 1.5 will take.

it's not planned it is in 1.5svn!
let's work together to get 1.6 (which will be the name of 1.5 as soon
as it will be stable...) released during the first months of next year!


> A better / more flexible way to design, edit and apply text styles.

yep, here we need somebody spending some time for a good specification.

there are lot of ideas on how to do it better. but we need somebody
taking on him/herself the leading task in the specification work.

however, here is my idea:

- a style chooser as a palette (dockable)
  +----------------------------+
  | Styles                  [x]|
  +----------------------------+
  | [_Text_________________|v] |
  |                            |
  | +------------------------+ |
  | | ¶ + Heading         ✎ ^| |
  | | ¶ ⊦ Heading 1       ✎  | |
  | | ¶ ∟ Heading 2       ✎  | |
  | | C Index             ✎  | |
  | | ¶ Notes             ✎  | |
  | | ¶ TOC 1             ✎ v| |
  | +------------------------+ |
  |                            |
  |  [ Add ] [ Manage ]        |
  +----------------------------+

- clicking on edit (✎) starts a non modal edit window

- clicking on [ add ] creates new styles

- cloning and deleting a style is done in its edit window (eventually
  also in a context menu in the list)

- the drop down lets you choose among text and table styles (and other
  types of styles implemented in the future)

- you can have more than one style palette open at a time

- style management (import, ...) is done in a new section of the
  document settings.

- the current used style (if any) is highlighted

- the style selector in the properties palette is kept as is (well, we
  should add a [ + ] button, there.)

- this palette would be docked in the story editor and replaces the
  current drop down.

in the case you like this proposal, believe me, there is much work to be
done to make sure that it fits all the needs and that it's indeed
usable.

specifying it in a way that anybody -- even somebody that is not in the
scribus team -- can implement it, will help your dreams come true!

ah, and we already have a patch to create a text style based on the
current selection. it just has to be tested by users.


> A better / more flexible way to manipulate images (interactive scale /
> translate / crop).

we have two patches for crop (on pdf export and during the layout
phase) and i think that they will be merged in, as soon as somebody has
checked that they work correctly (for the user, not in the code! there
is sooo much that can go wrong, here...)

for scale and translate (translate? mmm...) we need somebody specifying
the user interaction...

> Improved pre-flight checker. The more problems are caught the better.

just list the missing cases and i will try to add them!
i think that this a task i can take on me!

have a nice weekend!
a.l.e