[scribus] Frame captions

[Gregory Pittman]

On 01/03/2017 07:59 AM, Peter Nermander wrote:
>>
>>
>> In Microsoft Word, inserting a caption is really just a shortcut for
>> inserting a new paragraph with the caption style and some automatic
>> numbering fields already in place. Once placed, it's just a normal
>> paragraph though.
>>
>>
> And you are also very limited in the placement of the caption.
> 
> 
>>
>> You need to manually create it. Usually I create the image frame and text
>> frame for the caption, and then just group them.
>>
>>
> Which means you can choose any location for the caption, above, below, on
> the side, on top of the image or even behind the image (makes sense only
> for transparent images though:) ).
> 
> And you can also send such a combination to the scrapbook, to be able to
> reuse it.
> 

One could easily create a small script to make a caption frame for a
selected image frame. What comes pretty close in simplicity would be the
following:

Let's imagine that you want to make a caption frame just below the image
frame, and having the same width, but most likely a much smaller height.
Select the image frame.
Go to Item > Duplicate/Transform > Multiple Duplicate.
In the dialog, select the By Rows & Columns tab.
Set this for 2 rows, 1 column, leave Gaps at 0, click OK.
Select the new frame, right-click for the Context menu, and choose
Convert to > Text Frame.
Adjust height as desired.

Although it seems like a number of steps, they're all performed quickly
with the mouse, except perhaps if you want some precise height for the
caption frame.
If you instead want a caption on top -- try this:

First, shrink the selected image frame to the height you wish for the
caption. (Remember the original height is case you need that value)
Copy this as above.
Now convert the original frame to a Text Frame, enlarge the lower frame
to the height you want.

Similarly, the caption frame could be created to the left or right of
the first.

You might subsequently find some utility in "welding" the items. (Item >
Welding Tools) This way, when you move the image frame, the caption
moves with it.

An intriguing idea, but one I can't seem to get to work, would be to use
a Footnote method. Theoretically, this would be possible by converting
the image frame to a text frame, creating the footnote, then converting
back to an image frame. Unfortunately, footnotes remain rather broken,
so I couldn't get this to work. There are some additional obstacles, too.

Greg