Hi, I go with Christoph's idea of thinking of _all_ the Scribus-related documents as a project and putting them under a project directory - that means copying the images you want under your project directory tree, like you do when creating a website, and using _relative_ links to all referenced external resources (images or whatever). I would like to mention the functionality of Macromedia DreamWeaverMX2004 as an example - it asks you if you want to copy the image under your website's home directory tree when you try to insert an image in one of your webpages and that image is outside your website's directory tree.
This discussion also reminds me of Java's way of handling the JAR files - all the project's files are _zipped_ in one file - but under a project diretory. Though I am not proposing using zip/jar files for Scribus but a similar approach, perhaps, could be useful. The problem of having to find all the referenced image files in different directories also reminds me of Java's way of handling class-paths - you don't specify a single directory - but a number of directories to search for files - that is, a list of image directories could be specified through the preferences dialog to search image files if they are not found under the project directory ... So, when you move your .sla to another system you only have to change the path in one place using the preferences dialog. Of course, searching files does take a bit of time - that won't happen if you use relative paths - the search can start first from the home/project directory. Thinking in terms of a project and using relative links (instead of going for a jar/zip file approach) is better if we think in terms of content management systems - a content management system that uses a different strategy (the pattern!) to manage the textual content and a different strategy to manage the graphical content (images - bitmaps, vector files, etc.) - the top-level strategy (the parent from where all the lower level strategy-related classes are derived from, that is) will be the same/parent. Perhaps, out of workflow optimization issues, images could be put on a separate hard-disk in a separate content managemnt server (the image directory being linked/mounted on the local disk) so that the graphic artists as well as the DTP experts could work in parallel. When everything has been finalized (images are approved, text has been proofread, layout is approved, etc.) and those files are needed together in one directory - perhaps Scribus could use some kind of an export/collect functionality. Developers, you see my point? Don't you think that if you use strategy pattern then you can you use the same content managemernt system to manage different content (images, web pages, .sla's, etc.)? Don't you think _all_ the different referenced images/resource can be put in a single/file (some kind of a jar-like file) when they are needed in one place in one file? Instead of zeroing in on a _single_ storage/data management solution, the content management could use a different set of storage/data management engines in each case (web design/development, Scribus slas, images, etc.) Just my two bits! -- Best regards, Asif Peter Nermander wrote: >When it comes to whether links should be relative or absolute that depends a >lot >on how you are working. However I think in most cases relative links would be >the best since anyone with a little ambition will edit the images (resample, >crop etc) to adapt them for the publication. That would mean you would make a >COPY of the file, put it together with your document (probably in i >subdirectory) and make edits on that copy. The files would be moved together >with the document so the links would work all the time. > >In some cases though I can understand the need for absolute links, for example >when including a picture that is not edited (company logo?) and you have only >one "master copy". > >I don't think the user should always have to decide. Scribus could do some >"thinking" itself and then have the option for the user to change. > >For example, if an image is located in the same directory as the document, or a >subdirectory below, links should probablt be relative. > >If the image is located in another directory than the document (and not in a >subdiretcory below it) links should probably be absolute. > > >(Automatic searching can be a pain, MS Word looking for document templates is a >perfect example. I've had to rename templates to prevent Word from incorrectly >selecting them while opening some documents.) > > >
