On 01/10/2010 04:11 AM, Aaron W. Hsu wrote: > On Sat, 09 Jan 2010 10:12:01 -0500, Gregory Pittman > <gregp_ky at yahoo.com> wrote: > >> This is how Christoph and I (disclaimer: Christoph did the layout >> work) managed to make the PDF for our Scribus manual (400+ pages), so >> quite large projects are possible. > > Were you able to manage cross-references with another tool? How did > you keep consistent automatic styling with Character Styles? > > I wouldn't mind if I had to manage cross-references and the like > through other programs if that information could be updated easily in > the Scribus file. However, if I have to say, make another edition, and > the cross-references change, I may have to restyle the entire book > because I had to reimport my text, and I couldn't reimport the exact > same styles that I had (manual tweaking is lost). Is there a way to > fix this? > > Additionally, while importing from ODT works to some extent, it seems > to use the styling from ODT, and not from Scribus. I don't want the > writers to be in control of the style. I want them to feel comfortable > writing in Text editors and word processors, confident that when they > send it to me, and I import it, their style "classes" will stay the > same, but that I can alter the styling of these classes easily. This > doesn't seem possible, as a new import of text overwrites the styles > again. > > I guess, the thing that gets me is that DTP software should allow all > the content to be written elsewhere, and allow consistent styling to > be apply automatically to incoming text, ignoring the stylings that > may come in from a word processor. The text import works, but it fails > to understand character styles. If I could manage this, so that no > manual tweaking were required after my classes were set up in Scribus > and I reimported copy, I think I could manage easily enough to make > the appropriate cross-references and idnexes by managing them with > outside tools. The arguments you make suggest that you would be better off having your contributors work with plain text files in a simple editor. OTOH, importing ODT styles does not prevent you from applying your own custom styles within Scribus. Importation of styles from ODT files is meant to be a convenience, but if it's not for you, work in some other way.
Greg
