[Scribus] Prefs>Miscellaneous ...

[Louis Desjardins]

Craig Ringer a ?crit :

> On Mon, Feb 13, 2006 at 10:07:10PM -0500, Louis Desjardins wrote:
> 
>>The paths to Prefs are dazzling. It used to be in Settings > Prefs 
>>(1.2.x). Now, it's in Edit > Prefs. I'm allright with this. But why 
>>changes in Prefs don't reflects in the current document? It confuses 
>>me. I didn't figure out that there was a Prefs dialog in the File 
>>menu under File > Document Setup... I filed a bug for this. It turned 
>>out that there is no bug because of this File > Document Setup 
>>thing... But I still find this confusing.
>>
>>It confuses me as a user, and also as a translator. There are 2 
>>menus, with different names, for basically the same thing.
> 
> 
> I've been concerned about this myself. I am inclined to think that the
> division is necessary - DTP users *need* document-specific preferences
> and settings much more than other app users. However, the current
> situation is IMO insufficiently clear. The single best step would in my
> view be to just add one line of text at the bottom of the dialogs that
> say something like:
> 	"These settings will only affect the current document"
> and
> 	"These changes will only affect newly created documents"

I am naturally inclined to prefer a little sentence that tells it all. 
So, this is an interesting way, imo. if we want to keep the 2 dialogs.

2 dialogs still are a problem imo because they are not exactly 
identical... Some changes can be applied here.. some not.

The problem here is users are unaware that another prefs dialog exist 
somewhere else.

I fully agree we need both generic specs and document specs.

Is there a problem having this ? la Quark? Basically, with no document 
open (like for font path in Scribus) the changes will affect all new 
documents. When working on a document, the specs can be edited to suit a 
specific need and these new settings will remain attached to that 
document. A dialog will warn you if there are any changes and if you 
want to keep document settings or apply the app settings.

> 
> Imperfect, but then the old situation confused users a lot too ("I
> changed this setting, but when I closed the document it went away"). I
> don't think we can remove this functionality as it's IMO important
> people - thus we just have to mitigate the confusion it causes.
> 
> Any other suggestions on how to make it less confusing?
> 
> 
>>I will do my homework and get back with something substantial on 
>>Hyphenation, Tracking, Widow/Orphan control, Handling of Text. I 
>>struggled! The book is not what I can call a difficult task. Only 
>>text. Although a little long... But nothing to choke a DTP app. 
>>Nothing. Really!
> 
> 
> Scribus is weakest with its text handling IMO, with regards to both
> functionality and performance. There's work going on to improve both but
> it's not fast as the folks doing it only have so much time. More help
> is unlikely to hurt.

I realize my comment sounded a bit rude. Sorry about that. I am not 
complaining at all. I just decided to give it a shot and it was not as I 
expected it to be. Having made this book leads me to a better 
understanding of what is strong and what is not in Scribus. And I will 
take the time to propose or at least identify what works and what 
doesn't. That is the only help I can provide. I am no power programmer. 
Kind of power user, if I may say that like that! :-)

Cheers!

Louis

> 


-- 
Louis Desjardins
Mardigrafe inc.
T 514 934 1353
F 514 934 3698
http://www.mardigrafe.com