[scribus] Size of text frame compared to contents

[D. R. Evans]

Christoph Schäfer said the following at 07/18/2009 01:37 AM :
> Am Freitag, 17. Juli 2009 16:11:45 schrieb D. R. Evans:
>> D. R. Evans said the following at 07/16/2009 04:23 PM :
>>> I'm sure this is answered somewhere in the manual, but I can't find it
>>> (actually, that's my biggest complaint about the manual... I just cannot
>>> find stuff in it; maybe I'm just too used to the TeXbook's index).
>> I think I should make it clear, having seen how this thread has developed,
>> that I chose the TeXbook merely as an example of a book with a wonderful
>> index -- I don't think I have ever failed to find what I wanted after
>> consulting its index. It had nothing to do with the fact that the TeXbook
>> happens to be about putting characters on a page.
>>
>> Perhaps the following figures are telling:
>>
>> Scribus manual length: ~430 pages
>> Scribus index length: ~6 pages
>>
>> TeX manual length: ~455 pages
>> TeX index length: ~25 pages
> 
> As one of the main authors of the manual I have to say that the index is 
> always up for improvements. However, I don't think it's a good idea to 
> compare the index of a Scribus book with a (La)TeX book. After all, (La)TeX 

I think that maybe you're looking at this from the point of view of an
index producer rather than that of an index consumer.

The consumer wants to know how to do X. The number of different X things
that he might want to do is (presumably) more or less the same for TeX and
for Scribus. If that assumption is correct, then it should be more or less
equally as difficult to find out how to do something in the two cases; but
as an index consumer unfortunate experience leaves me in no doubt that I am
vastly more likely to be able to figure out how to do what I want from the
TeXbook index than from the Scribus index.

Having whined, though, I am not sure how to improve the Scribus index. If I
look at it form the point of view of an index producer, it's not at all
obvious how to make it more useful :-(

  Doc

-- 
Web:  http://www.sff.net/people/N7DR

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