On 01/29/2009 06:27 PM, Gene Young wrote: > Web Kracked wrote: > >> >> Thanks again >> >> Did they have an update or bug fix lately? >> I will download it again, and try it again, >> but without a manual or good documentation, >> it will not be easy for some of my "people", >> that I deal with, to use it. >> >> Frames, Photos/Graphics, Font variety,styles, >> and sizes, are needed. We will see. >> >> Tim L. >> >> > > There is a good Tutorial here: > http://wiki.scribus.net/index.php/Get_Started_with_Scribus > > It is the one I am using. >
Let's put this to rest now. Scribus is a fine DTP, but if you are looking to do a simple newsletter you'd better buckle your seat belt and strap in for a learning curve. I did documentation in FrameMaker, and brochures in PageMaker for quite some time so I know the difference between such applications. OOo provides the best of non-professional and semi-professional DTP 'type' publishing as it provides tools for word processing, graphics, portability etc.,etc. Scribus is a tool for DTP (yes I use it too). Let me quote from the help section from within Scribus: <quote> First the Theory - The Right Approach First time users of page layout applications like Scribus can be very frustrated at first. The interface seems approachable and familiar enough, but when you start out things do not quite work as expected. Do not make the mistake of launching Scribus, opening a new document and expect to start typing. Making the most of an application like Scribus, requires a bit of understanding of the concepts within "workflow" in the DTP world. It might seem a bit arcane at first, but will pay off in the end. Part of the challenge of learning Scribus is you are often not just trying to learn a program, but learning DTP, which has its own little rules. There are subtle differences from word processors or other text editors. Fortunately, Scribus comes with its own built-in story editor. Using this instead of editing on the canvas, understanding the setup and application of styles will greatly enhance your productivity, as well as providing you with more consistent, easier to edit documents. Workflow, means in the page layout world a way of assembling both the files to be used, but also some forethought on where and how your document will be printed or used. If for example, you were planning on creating a brochure for your business, you certainly would want to have it commercially printed. Thus, you would be sadly mistaken if you thought you could take the low resolution JPEG from your website and use them in Scribus directly. Web and print have two different objectives. Graphics used on a website are almost always unusable for commercial printing. You need much higher resolution graphics. File size should almost always be secondary to image quality when considering commercial print needs. A typical website image is 72-96 DPI , where for good print results, you need 200-300 DPI. Scribus can export PDF at 4000 DPI A Simple DTP Workflow: 1. Make a simple sketch on paper of the basic layout.. This helps to visualize how to mix text, artwork and images. 2. Get images collected as needed, preferably high 200 DPI or more saved as TIFFs or PNG. Get your artwork (illustrations or line art in a suitable import format. SVG is usually the best option. 3. Write out the text in a word processor or text editor. Spell check, double check grammar, etc. 4. Collect all these files in a project directory and start building your document in Scribus. </quote> Please don't point OOo users to Scribus for simple standard tasks such as newsletters unless the OP specifically asks for advise regarding a DTP only program. It's not only unnecessary, it can be quite harmful depending upon who the advise is given to. Imagine sending a standard/casual MS Office or MS Publisher user off to Scribus simply because one is too lazy on misinformed to point them in a way that they can easily do it in OOo. Unfortunately, it seems that this happens on this list on a regular basis. The guy wants to do a basic newsletter; how hard can that be in OOo? If he eventually wants to join the DTP world and integrate his work(s) into Scribus, cool. But don't just automatically proprose Scribus when someone mentions how to do a newsletter. For those that do, here's a challenge for you: open up a Scribus newsletter template - don't do anything with it, at all. Now save it (File|Save As|) and pass it along to an OOo and MS Office user for editing/mark-up/comments. Now do the same in OOo. You see, you can't edit, modify, or change, a Scribus file unless you have Scribus. Similar to MS Publisher & somewhat similar to FrameMaker or PageMaker. You can of course export as text etc., but it is a DTP and is not intended to be a word processor, spell checker, etc. At least with OOo you can share the file with other OOo users, save as a .doc file (some formating can be lost yes, so it's not perfect, but at least you can obtain _some_ portability). Like JJJ, I use and support Scribus. But for those on the list that advise folks like Tim just use Scribus, please do two things: 1) don't - unless of course you can point out examples where he might not be able to use OOo for this task, and 2) if you do, at least have the common courtesy to guide him to a http://wiki.scribus.net/index.php/Get_Started_with_Scribus link or similar so they can familiarize themselves with the basics. Tim probably will do well with Scribus since he has been using PageMaker for years, but others generally just want a simple answer to "how to use OOo to make a newsletter". --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: users-unsubscr...@openoffice.org For additional commands, e-mail: users-h...@openoffice.org
