[Scribus] Subdivisions, Columns, Tables

[Louis Desjardins]

Roger a ?crit :

> I dont understand the discussion about multi columns and spacings.
> It seems to me that trying to do things in one text box increases the associated problems as has
> been discussed.
> 
> I have as many columns and rows of any dimension that I need simply by using empty text boxes as
> recepticals and spacers, with set dimensions and xyz positioning.
> Then just link  text in receptical boxes where I want flow to occur. Am I doing something incorrectly.
> 
> What is the reason that text boxes aren't suitable to provide the appropriate columns, rows and
> spacings in the discussion thread.
> 
> help appreciated

Hi Roger,

Discussions like this one always come down to effectiveness or 
productivity. The less you have to do to achieve your layout, the less 
time it takes. Drawing, manipulating, resizing, placing any object on 
the page take an amount of time. When you multiply the objects, you 
multiply the time. When you then change your mind and have to re-edit, 
you can suddenly discover that it would have been easier if things have 
been done another way.

For this reason, a multicolumn text frame is better than a monocolumn 
text frame, imo. But I agree we can do without. It is always possible to 
make a text frame, duplicate it with the proper settings and link it. On 
the other hand, with a multicolumn text frame you draw this frame once 
and go to Properties for selecting just how many columns you wish and 
what gap in between those columns and you're done. It works both ways. 
Each of the users can figure what works best for them. If, for instance, 
you have to resize the columns for any reason, you'll have one frame or 
many frames to resize depending on how you did your layout. If you 
change your mind and want 3 columns instead of 4, it's a breeze to 
change a multicolumn text frame and it will definitely take more time 
with single columns linked together.

Now, is it possible, feasible or wishable to do with rows what we do 
with columns? Typically, a text frame doesn't have rows. It has columns. 
If we want rows, we need to make a table. But wouldn't it be a good idea 
to add to the text frame possibility the rows with gap, what we could 
call a horizontal column? You'd then be able to have a layout with 
different column width as we were discussing in the previous post. To 
me, the idea is good enough to investigate further, find out the pros 
and cons and see how it turns out. If the solution turns out to be 
clumsy, then it's not worth coding. If we find, with real-case 
scenarios, we can save time layouting this kind of pages (which is not 
that seldom), then we have a strong feature on-board.

Let's see what others think about it.

I hope this helps,

Louis



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