[scribus] Consistent spaces between objects/items

[Gregory Pittman]

On 01/20/2017 06:06 AM, Jonas Nilsson wrote:
> Hi all!
> 
> Designing DTP content I often struggle to get consistency of spaces.
> 
> Let's say, for (maybe a bad) example, that I have a heading text frame, a
> line below and below that line a body text frame.
> 
>    - I want the space between the heading text frame and the line to be x
>    units.
>    - I want the space between the line and the body text frame to be y
>    units.
>    - Other times I use that heading I want the same spaces between the
>    different objects/items.
> 
> Let's collect some best practices! How would you do this?
> 
> Often you can use contour lines when text is involved. I's more problematic
> with graphical elements, though.
> 
> I'm thinking optional margins outside of the objects/items that you can
> choose to snap to. What do you think?


There are many ways to accomplish or aid what you're trying to do, so it
comes to personal preference. This sounds to some extent like you might
want to create a template with this arrangement. I have also written
scripts to create a basic layout that I would use repeatedly.
Guides can be very helpful in these relationships, snapping items to the
guides. Here is a script that creates guides at the borders of an
existing selected object:

https://wiki.scribus.net/canvas/Making_Guides_at_an_Object%27s_Borders

There is a way to use Multiple Duplicate to specify a certain space
between frames. In your case, make the header frame, then select
Multiple Duplicate for one object, specifying the desired vertical
distance between the two, then enlarge the new frame as needed for the
body text. Also remember that the spinboxes will do math for help in
relative positioning.

Unless you have to have a separate frame, I wonder why you have a
separate frame for the header and the body. A line between the two can
still be placed, and you might even use a line as an inline item in the
text frame.

With Paragraph Styles, you can specify a particular space below a
paragraph, which might be useful for getting the right distance between
header and body text.

I'm sure there are many other methods.

Greg