[scribus] Editing a book, any hints or gothchas?

[John Culleton]

On Thu, 15 Jan 2015 07:53:20 -0500
Mary Moore <tennesseelady21 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Fredrik,
> 
> I have completed 3 novels and 2 children's
> books using scribus.  I generally add one
> chapter at a time to one scribus file. I like
> to do one chapter at a time so that if there
> are any formatting issues I can fix them by
> chapter, rather than the whole book. I have had
> no problem with adding my chapters into one
> file. For my covers I use Gimp.
> 
> You are welcome to visit my website
> www.thenorthpolepress.com to look at the books
> I have published.
> 
> Good Luck,
> Mary
> 
> On Thu, Jan 15, 2015 at 6:39 AM, Fredrik Jonson
> <fredrik at jonson.org> wrote:
> 
> > Hi All,
> >
> > I've just begun editing a book in scribus,
> > and I have a few questions.
> >
> > The book will have a soft cover and contain
> > about 250 pages, mostly text. There will be a
> > few images, probably greyscale inline in the
> > text chaptes, and a separate color image
> > section in the middle or end of the book.
> >
> > Each chapter is 10 - 30 pages. I've seen
> > advice on the list that some people
> > keep each chapter in a separate scribus
> > document for performance reasons. But is that
> > really necessary? If I use contemporary
> > hardware, does scribus still have a hard time
> > with < 300 pages mostly text?
> >
> > I'd like to use footnotes in each chapter,
> > and afaiu it is available in 1.5,
> > which isn't released yet. I'm on 1.4.4 on
> > Ubuntu. What is your advice? Should I try to
> > install 1.5, and if so, what is the best way
> > to do that on Ubuntu 14.04?  (I don't mind a
> > few bugs, so the fact that it isn't released
> > yet doesn't scare me too much. Beta quality
> > is definitively ok, pre-alpha, perhaps not so
> > much. But I'm willing to give it a go. :)
> > What are the alternatives if I'm stuck on
> > 1.4.4. Any examples of manual footnote
> > handling, etc?
> >
> > In the best of worlds, I'd like to
> > automatically import footnotes from ODT
> > libreoffice documents. That'd be awesome. :)
> >
> > Is there any way to automatically add text
> > frames that fills the page margin
> > when you add pages? Right now I'm
> > copy/pasting a blank text frame as I go when
> > I add pages, but that's a bit tedious and
> > error prone.
> >
> > The search/replace in the story editor is
> > great. I get scripts that have titles
> > prefixed with H1, H2, etc, so it is easy to
> > map that to the styles I've edited and remove
> > the prefix from the text in one go. Now, as a
> > I have many chapters, I wonder if I can
> > script that, rather than do it manually? Does
> > the python script api contain any functions
> > similar to the story editor search/replace. I
> > like that the script language in scribus is
> > python btw, yay!
> >
> > Is there any way to remove the "Default
> > character style" and "Default paragraph
> > style"? I just want the styles I'm actually
> > using, to reduce editing mistakes.
> >
> > BTW, the style editor is a bit funky, it
> > doesn't always update when values are
> > changed, and sometimes values like selected
> > font, and style inheritance seems to get lost
> > while editing and switching between tabs. But
> > I guess these are known bugs for 1.4.4?
> >
> > Oh, and in general, what is the common way to
> > work with cover pages? Do I maintain that as
> > a separate document?
> >
> > Guess that's it for now. Thanks for a great
> > piece of software, and thanks in advance for
> > any comments.
> >
> > --
> > Fredrik Jonson
> >
> >
> > ___
> > Scribus Mailing List:
> > scribus at lists.scribus.net Edit your options
> > or unsubscribe:
> > http://lists.scribus.net/mailman/listinfo/scribus
> > See also: http://wiki.scribus.net
> > http://forums.scribus.net
> >
> -------------- next part --------------
> An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
> URL:
> <http://lists.scribus.net/pipermail/scribus/attachments/20150115/9dec30ca/attachment.html>
> ___ Scribus Mailing List:
> scribus at lists.scribus.net Edit your options or
> unsubscribe:
> http://lists.scribus.net/mailman/listinfo/scribus
> See also: http://wiki.scribus.net
> http://forums.scribus.net
> 

Gimp is a useful tool but with the new script
 for the layout:
softcover_inch.py 
available from my website 
http://www.wexfordpress.com

and the ability of Scribus to work in CMYK and
produce PDF X/1-2:2001 format I prefer to layout
the cover in Scribus and use Gimp for
manipulation of photos and/or some special type
effects. 

Cover page should be a single pdf with the three
panels arranged left to right: back, spine, front,
and a trim allowance of 0.125 inches or its
metric equivalent.

The new script mentioned above takes care of all
that. 

Try it, you might like it :<)
-- 
John Culleton
Wexford Press
Free list of books for self-publishers:
http://wexfordpress.net/shortlist.html
Updated PDF e-book: "Create Book Covers with
Scribus 1.4.5" coming soon at
http://www.booklocker.com/!