[scribus] are you experienced?

[Christen Anderson]

> >If you are, read my new entry in the wiki blog (even if you're not,
> >you can read it too):
> >
> >http://wiki.scribus.net/canvas/Blog:Scribus_Times_and_Gazette/Searchin
> g_for_a_new_angle_in_documentation
> >
> >I have little idea how much time and work this project will take, but
> >it's one of these brain itches I need to scratch at a bit.
> 
> Whenever I need to use software that I am unfamiliar with I generally
> start with a simple project. And then another project, perhaps months
> later. And another. And another. In fact, the initial project is
> probably what drove me to try the program in the first place.
> 
> A big advantage of learning a program this way is that I learn the
> parts that *I* need to know about for the kinds of work that *I* do. It
> is also very efficient. And I remember what I learned better because I
> learned it by doing it. The disadvantage is that there will always be
> holes in my knowledge of the program. To me, the advantages far
> outweigh the disadvantages.
> 
> Because of my way of learning programs I strongly support your idea of
> task-oriented Scribus. However, I'm not sure that creating
> documentation aimed at specific types of tasks is necessarily useful.
> If the documentation has a search feature I can look things up as I
> need them - assuming I can figure out what the feature I am looking for
> is called. Knowing the terminology of a new program is always
> frustrating.
> 
> I also like the idea of workflow documentation although, again, I
> wonder about its usefulness. On the other hand, when I gave a recent
> talk about Scribus the audience (Linux heads, programmers, computer
> science people) were amazed at ideas like line screen and banding,
> colors out of gamut, and even CMYK. Some didn't even know the
> difference between a vector and a raster image. I think the workflow
> idea might be very useful as a framework for general DTP stuff.

I especially like the idea of task-orientation. I know that for me
personally, something like this would have made learning Scribus much
easier, because no matter how well a DTP program is designed, it's still
very non-intuitive for someone that knows nothing about it (and Scribus is
actually easier to learn than a lot of other programs out there).