Text resizing not being applied

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Does problems with text resizing put you off using scribus?

yes
1 (33.3%)
no
0 (0%)
I don't have problems resizing text
2 (66.7%)

Total Members Voted: 3

Voting closed: December 06, 2016, 10:44:18 PM

skippi

Hello. New to scribus

all text does not resize

whenever I place any text in a text box and then try to edit the size, it appears not to change the size at all or only by one or two points.

I have reinstalled and have installed ghostscript first.

OK I have solved this myself
It seems scribus does not work like any program I have ever used

You have to right click on the text you need to edit and select properties

dont ask me how to edit using the story editor - maybe I will find out in a couple of years

I'm not impressed with the lack of basics that can easily be accessed and read. If I knew how to contribute to a page I would gladly




utnik

hi skippi

your problem didn't occur here. but i almost never use the story editor.
either i use paragraph and character styles and edit the font size in the 'style manager' (f3) or (when there are reasons for direct formatting) i do it in frame using the 'text' tab of the 'properties' palette (f2).

utnik

GarryP

skippi, I think you might be trying to use Scribus in a way that is making things more difficult for yourself.

The first thing I can say is that you should leave the Properties Palette open at all times. Once it's open don't close it. It remains active while you edit your document and the available tools change according to what you have selected. (If it makes things easier to understand you can think of the Properties Palette as an "Object Inspector".) I don't really know why the PP can be closed as Scribus isn't usable - in any meaningful way - if it's not open.

The next thing to say is that text formatting changes are easy (if you keep the PP open). First, don't use the Story Editor; it's not very good for most purposes. It has its uses in some circumstances but - for most use cases - it's pretty bad. Use inline editing instead. Inline editing means making changes within the text frame itself.

To make formatting changes to the whole of the text in the text frame just select the frame and use the PP Text tab options/tools to make the changes necessary.

To make formatting changes to specific text within a text frame, double-click the frame to enter inline editing mode. When you're in this mode, select the text you want to change - as you would do with any word processing software - and use the PP Text tab to make the changes in the same way as you would to change the formatting of the whole text as mentioned above.

See the attached "video" where changes are first made at a 'frame level' then, after a double-click, at a 'character level'.

Once you're comfortable making formatting changes this way I would suggest looking at learning about Styles which make formatting changes much quicker when you need to make changes at a 'document level'.

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satis5d

Let me state for the record that GarryP's post here pretty much single-handedly revived my hope for this program. :o I'm a long-time user of PageMaker, QuarkXPress and InDesign, but I believe in the open-source approach, especially since the greed machine is marching headlong into monthly subscriptions. But the challenges I've been facing doing simple text tasks made this program a non-starter for me. I was just about to give up on Scribus (after reading the in-program help and watching several YouTube videos on the topic to no avail.)

The properties box is indeed the "secret sauce I've been looking for. But going forward, it sure would be nice to be able to change font sizes using the [control]+[shift]+[<]or[>] like most programs use. For a free program, I've been otherwise quite impressed. I'll definitely keep experimenting with this one. Perhaps the day will come when I kiss the big boys' programs goodbye.  ;)

CGood

It is really hard to "unlearn" habits and shortcuts. I'm reminded about when I started to learn using acrylic paints after a lifetime of using oil paints. I just hated acrylics - until I began to see that they solved certain problems and moved certain processes forward, and gave me creative opportunities impossible in oils. My point is not that Scribus is wildly different from other such programs, but that it takes time to become fluent, and until then, it or any new replacement for a well known tool will feel like a boat anchor. Once you live in it enough, it feels more and more natural.
And, like GarryP says, stay away from the story editor. It needs work.

a.l.e

in my experience the whole re/unlearn thing is overrated.

... says somebody who suddenly had to switch from the right to the left hand for too many tasks...

i've learned that when i get a new tool, i should take some time to learn it (the first day with the mouse on my left hand was really hard!) and not spend my time tweaking the tool so that it learns me... (no, i did not switch the left and right mouse button)

imo, the time for tweaking a tool only comes when i already know the tool (very) well. before that time, it's me who should try to adapt...
and if the tool really does not work for me: i switch the tool.


GarryP

satis5d, I'm glad my post has given you a bit more hope in Scribus.

In lieu of keyboard shortcuts for increasing/decreasing font size you can create shortcuts in "Preferences / Keyboard Shortcuts" for specific font sizes and various other formatting options (they're in the Styles section).

You can also use the mouse Scroll Wheel over the size field to quickly change the value (you can do this with most numeric value fields). Use Shift/Ctrl along with the scroll wheel to modify the amount the size changes by, for example: SW = 1 unit, Shift+SW = 0.1 units, Ctrl+SW = 10 units.

I realise that this isn't exactly what you want but it might help to make things easier.