Create a table of contents.

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jon15

Hi everyone, I installed Scribus recently (1.4.7 on Windows 10) and spent the last week learning the basics. When I tried to create a TOC I followed the instructions in the wiki, accurately I think, but no TOC appeared. I've watched videos on YT, there were only a couple on this subject, have searched the internet and this forum, but haven't been able to work out how to achieve my aim.
I'd be grateful if someone help me with this

a.l.e

I would not use the TOC tool in scribus...

Just type your titles and page numbers, you'll be faster!

(there are way to get the TOC done through external tools that work on the pdf, but i would not use them either).

With a bit of luck, the next stable release (1.6) will have a "real" TOC tool...

jon15

Quote from: a.l.e on December 02, 2018, 05:45:30 PM
I would not use the TOC tool in scribus...

Just type your titles and page numbers, you'll be faster!

(there are way to get the TOC done through external tools that work on the pdf, but i would not use them either).

With a bit of luck, the next stable release (1.6) will have a "real" TOC tool...

Thanks for replying. Creating a TOC that is navigable, that is when a reader clicks on an entry in the TOC they are taken to that part of the document, is vital to what I want to do. I've used Libre and exported to pdf, and the TOC still operates, but I want to create a document with 58 images, and placing multiple images in any word processor is a nightmare! I don't think you can make a professional looking document this way, which is why I tried Scibus. People create magazines with Scribus, which, I assume, have a TOC, so I'm sure some have mastered it. I'd be very grateful if someone would share their wisdom with myself.

jon15

I've given up. After spending many hours in the last few days trying to master how to create a TOC I've had to conclude that Scribus isn't for me.
I never criticise open source software, I'm grateful to the creators for their time, and when learning the basics of Scribus I was impressed by what a wonderful programme it is. But a navigable TOC is vital to what I want to do. I know nothing of IT, but I will make a suggestion. With a word processor it's easy to create a TOC, you just insert a bookmark for each chapter title then insert a hyperlink in each title's entry in the TOC. Is it possible to have such a feature in a DTP? Being able to link one part of a document to another would have a few uses in addition to making a TOC. In any event, best wishes, I like seeing open source software flourish, so I hope Scribus goes from strength to strength. And if you can and do what I've suggested, wonderful! 

a.l.e

jon, it's not a nice thing to say, but well, i told you : - (

scribus is a tool for creating print ready PDFs... and, you might agree with me, that when you send your pdf to a print shop to get it printed, you don't really care about a navigable TOC.

or even worse: you don't want all the titles in the TOC to be underlined, because they're links...

of course, you're welcome to use scribus for other purposes, like uploading your pdf to a web page and let your clients download and read it on their screen.

but i have to admit that scribus -- while it has done some advances -- it's far to be a good tool for creating PDFs that are meant to be viewed on screen.

but, to be honest, there is a reason for that, too: PDF is not a good format either for presenting content on a screen. (and, if you look at the specs, PDF has indeed been created for the print workflow!).
HTML and Epub are formats that are way superiors, for content that is to be consumed on a monitor! (even if the tools for viewing and creating them are not always as comfortable and polished as they could be).

personally, i'd like scribus to have a real TOC tool, but the way to get there is steep and the people who have been working on it, might need some some support...

dragonfly

#5
@jon15

You are falling between two stools.

(a) To create a professional document with clickable links in TOC
(b) To use Scribus

My suggestion as a workaround is to try a front end editor such as https://www.giuspen.com/cherrytree/
You can add your images and create a TOC of all the nodes.
Then export in different modes such as PDF, HTML.

To get the exported content into Scribus is another matter since as I learned the TOC references would change when raw content is mapped to Scribus frames.  I have considered writing a Scribus script for such dynamic mapping but never find the time for this.

Another framework I use is atom.io plus Pandoc which can take raw markdown and images and again export in different formats. Either to web or to print press.  Passing content through Scribus in a later stage gives you the benefit of colour profile management. Again I learned from reading this Scribus forum that colour representation differs between the web screen and printed document through a print press.

The common challenge faced is mapping these external assets to Scribus document.

I would look at Pandoc for your TOC.