[scribus-dev] Editable Master Pages

[Gregory Pittman]

Andreas Vox wrote:
>
> Am 06.08.2008 um 15:53 schrieb Gregory Pittman:
>
>>>
>>> ...
>
>>> 1. The frames that will be linked need only to be tagged as "to be 
>>> linked" to the *same* frame on *next* page to which this particular 
>>> MP would be applied. That way, you can set as many chain of text 
>>> frames as you need.
>>> 2. The frames that are un-tagged are created on each page too but 
>>> are not linked.
>>> 3. Plus, you can also set 2 or more frames to be linked together on 
>>> a single page, but not to the next page.
>>> 4. And finally, you can have a set of frames in a structure where 
>>> all those frames are linked together on a single page and are also 
>>> flowing in the next set of identical frames on the next page. That 
>>> is, the last frame in the chain gets a tag to be linked to the next 
>>> first one of the chain on the next page.
>>>
>>> The same can be done on facing pages. With the particularity that we 
>>> could set the links to run on the full sequence of the pages, 1-2-3- 
>>> or 1-3-5 and 2-4-6.
>> I think you also have to think about streamlining the process. For 
>> one thing, without changing the way links work, they could be easier 
>> to work with. Make the linking something like making a Bezier curve, 
>> where you activate linking, then left click, left click, left click, 
>> then when you're done, right-click or ESC to end linking and turn it 
>> off, with a message or tooltip to tell you this.
>
> I'd rather see something like in Pagemaker: clicking on the overflow 
> indicator goes into link-mode. Shift clicking will create new 
> textframes as necessary.
> Unlinking is available via context menu.
>
>> As far as auto-linking, maybe there should be some semi-automated 
>> naming of frames, so that you could have families of text frames with 
>> similar names (think of the way that KSnapshot helps with naming 
>> screengrabs by automated numbering: eg, snapshot.png > snapshot1.png 
>> > snapshot2.png, and so on). This would facilitate auto-linking. It 
>> might also allow for rearranging the linking simply by changing names 
>> of the frames.
>
> I think role names are a cleaner approach than some elaborated naming 
> scheme.
>
>>>
>>>     e) Manually linking frames overrides the "auto-link-to" mechanism.
>>>
>>>
>>> Agree.
>>>
>>> If we are to create a new dialog for managing links, I would be 
>>> incline to think of a way to link two frames that are far from each 
>>> other in the page range, such as "Top Story on Front page" > 
>>> "continued on Back Page" and be able to set the link from this back 
>>> page frame (or on any page) to the front page frame from within that 
>>> dialog instead of having to run the link through all pages with the 
>>> mouse. But this is a tweak!
>>>
>>>     f) Empty text objects from master pages are editable on normal
>>>     pages and use the role/auto-link-to properties.
>>>
>>>
>> What about the idea of having, for example, an empty text frame on a 
>> MP, which in a sense "links" to an editable frame on a regular layer 
>> on every page where that MP is used. The content could be edited in 
>> the usual way, but you could go to the MP and change position and 
>> size, which then would change the position and size of the editable 
>> frame on the editable layer without changing content.
>
> We already need a separate copy of the content for each MP textframe 
> because of pagenumbers,
> so it would be more natural to reuse the MP textframe, just with local 
> content.
>
>> Could/should you be able to change position/size on the regular 
>> layer? Perhaps, but you'd have to decide whether this might change 
>> the frame on the MP -- might be a problem, and perhaps might "break" 
>> this MP link, at least on that page. I'm trying to think in the terms 
>> of the complaints that people seem to have, but also preserving the 
>> "integrity" of the MP.
>>
>
> AFAIU that's the core of the MP-usability question, ie. the point 
> where people disagree.
>
> My position is:
> a) if we allow changing position or other properties of MP items on 
> the normal page, use style inheritance to link to the original MP object.
> b) never change the MP original when editing a normal page (not sure 
> if you meant it that way,
> but it sounds like it)
> c) definitely allow to change content of MP objects on the normal page.
Yes, I pretty much agree with everything you're saying.

Greg