Drag & drop not working in Arrange Pages

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PemburySinger

Hi, I'm working slowly through the tutorial, and have hit a stumbling block with Arrange Pages. I'm using Windows 7, and so far have only managed to get the cover page and a left hand master page into the lower Document Pages section. Scribus refuses to drop a right hand page in the lower section. I was only able to drop the left hand master page by saving the file, closing it, and then going back into it, because the Arrange Pages crashed and everything greyed out. The attached shows what my Arrange Pages looks like in Windows 7.

Is this because I'm working through Microsoft, rather than through Linux?

Feeling frustrated.

[attachment deleted by admin]

GarryP

Welcome to the forum PemburySinger.

I don't know which tutorial you are following but the Arrange Pages function is something that most people don't use very much. I don't think I've ever used it on any real documents myself. It's not really something that you need to learn so - unless you really want to use it - you can probably ignore it. You should be able to learn Scribus without using the Arrange Pages function and you will probably never use it in practice.

As for your example, since you've only got two pages in your document there aren't many ways to arrange them. One page has to be the first page - on the right, as per the layout - and one page has to be the second page - on the left.

If you have created pages that are specifically right- or left-oriented then you should only be dragging them to the right or left (respectively). As a simple example: If your left-hand pages have their page numbers at the bottom-left then it makes no sense to drag them to a right-oriented position as the page number will be in the wrong place. I hope this makes sense.

While there are some differences between the versions of Scribus on different OSes, this sort of function should be the same regardless of the OS you're using. The Windows version of Scribus works just fine.

P.S. You didn't say which version of Scribus you were using but you should learn with the current stable version 1.4.6 and not one of the developmental versions. Learning on the developmental versions makes things a lot more difficult than they need to be.

PemburySinger

Hi GarryP.

I downloaded Scribus 1.4.6, so that I would have the most recent stable version. The tutorial is available from https://wiki.scribus.net/canvas/Get_Started_With_Scribus:1 onwards, although you can download it in PDF or OpenOffice format as well.

The reason my image file only shows two pages is that I am unable to drag any more pages into the lower half, not because that is what the tutorial has suggested, or that is what I want in the magazine. I want more pages, but there is a bug in the Windows version that is preventing me from dragging and dropping further pages in Arrange Pages. I think that being able to see the overall page layout would be a useful tool, and you could very quickly set up the overall number of pages you want to have in the publication and move them around - if it worked. I've come across an archaic manual version of this when editing the alumni magazine for my university.

I am intending to try downloading Scribus via Linux on another computer to see whether this makes any difference. As you say, it shouldn't, but it's worth a shot. Maybe it's the version for Windows that's the problem.

PemburySinger

I have now tried Scribus via Linux, and precisely the same problem occurs with Arrange Pages - the same bug. It comes up with the cover page and the "page 2" that I inserted earlier (because I used the files that I already had), and simply will not allow any dragging and dropping. I also had to close Scribus and go back in, because Arrange Pages was greyed out.

utnik

hi pemburysinger

i never use 'arrange pages'.
but if you really wont it this way, you have to drag the master page exactly to the correct place between the document pages. as soon as the dark rectangle appears, you can drop the page and it will be inserted there.
but as garry mentioned before, you have to be careful not to mix up the right and left master pages.

the better way will always be to create new pages over the menu 'page' → 'insert'.

utnik

GarryP

Ah, I think I understand now. If I've got it right, you're dragging master pages down to the "Document Pages" section.

I've just done a quick test with 1.4.6 on Windows 10 and it seems to work fine as long as you do what utnik says about making sure that the dark rectangle appears before you release the mouse button. Dragging pages around also works sometimes, but not always and that makes the function a bit unusable. For example, in my tests I could not drag page 5 of a 5-page document anywhere.

As utnik says, the usual way to create pages is the "Page -> Insert" function and you can then use the "Page -> Apply Master Page" function - en masse if necessary - to make sure the correct master pages are applied. That's the way I've always done it and it's always worked for me.

If you really need to use the Arrange Pages function for moving pages around, remember that the dialog is not modal so if you zoom the document out you can see the pages being moved around (if Scribus lets you move them).

PemburySinger

I have made some progress by using Pages>Insert. Having had one partially successful attempt and scrapping it, the second attempt was wholly successful, and I added four master pages, left, right, left, right. Also, when I looked at Arrange Pages, it displayed them correctly, even though I can't actually use it to do anything with the pages. It does, however, provide a useful overview of the layout of the pages themselves.

[attachment deleted by admin]

PemburySinger

Hi GarryP, I have Windows 7, not Windows 10, and Arrange Pages doesn't work on Windows 7 in the way you describe, except for the first page 2, and then only after exiting Scribus, going back into it and loading the file. After that, there is no dark rectangle, and it is inert.

Thanks for the suggestion.

I will continue to use Pages>Insert from now on, and simply use Arrange Pages to check the overall layout when I feel the need.

GarryP

You already said that you were using Windows 7 but I didn't see why Scribus would behave any differently between 7 and 10. There are some differences between OS X and Windows and Linux but the differences are usually - in my experience at least - only between the different OSes and not between different versions of the same OS.

The tiny bit of testing that I did didn't show the problems you're having so I've no idea what's going wrong.

Unless you're going to be rearranging pages, the Arrange Pages function isn't much use - in my opinion - for checking the overall layout as you can't see what's on the pages. You can get an idea of the overall layout by just zooming out of your document but you can only see a bit of a long document which might not be ideal. It would be great if we could choose how many spreads were shown across the canvas - rather than the current situation of just the 1/2/3 pages depending on document type - but maybe that could be something for a later version.

Anyway, if you insert pages in the usual way - as mentioned above - as you say you are going to be doing then you should be fine.

utnik

hi pemburysinger
Quote from: PemburySinger on January 14, 2018, 10:58:00 AMI have Windows 7, not Windows 10, and Arrange Pages doesn't work on Windows 7 in the way you describe...

i just checked 'arrange pages' with scribus 1.4.6 on a windows 7 machine. as long as i don't try to move the last page, everything (adding new pages, moving existing pages) works as expected.

either your system is partly broken or you do something strange...

utnik

PemburySinger

Quotei just checked 'arrange pages' with scribus 1.4.6 on a windows 7 machine. as long as i don't try to move the last page, everything (adding new pages, moving existing pages) works as expected.

either your system is partly broken or you do something strange...

No, nothing strange. It simply doesn't work by using drag 'n' drop. I've got around it by other means, and it isn't the end of the world, so no matter.