Scribus Forums

Scribus => Beginner Talk => Topic started by: cardioid on May 13, 2014, 09:16:41 PM

Title: Where are the tools??
Post by: cardioid on May 13, 2014, 09:16:41 PM
Hi,

first post... please be gentle ;)

It's been a while since I dabbled in Scribus and just started on a new project. All of a sudden, that entire panel on the right with the tools where you set the object properties, anchors, dimensions, colors, etc. is gone.

I thought it had to do with a system upgrade from a while back, but installing Scribus 1.4.3 made no difference (on a Mac with 10.6.8). Did I just dream about this panel? Where is it and how do I call it up?

Thanks,
Stefan
Title: Re: Where are the tools??
Post by: utnik on May 13, 2014, 09:32:06 PM
hi stefan

you'll find the panel under 'windows' → 'properties' (or f2)

utnik
Title: Re: Where are the tools??
Post by: cardioid on May 13, 2014, 09:43:47 PM
Thank you utnik... I couldn't find the damn thing for the life of me (nor do I remember ever closing it).

Back to work!

Thanks,
Stefan
Title: Re: Where are the tools??
Post by: GarryP on May 14, 2014, 10:48:16 AM
Sometimes the Properties palette seems to have a life of its own in my experience.

I can go for weeks where it opens up as expected on loading Scribus and then, out of the blue, it will stop opening up even when I know for a fact that it was open when I closed Scribus. And then, after a little while, things go back to normal again.

It's just an idiosyncrasy of the current build as far as I can tell, or maybe it's my installation.

P.S. I don't know why Scribus doesn't always default to opening the properties palette on loading every time. The functionality available without it is so basic there will be few times you don't need it. That's just my opinion though.
Title: Re: Where are the tools??
Post by: utnik on May 14, 2014, 01:56:37 PM
Quote from: GarryP on May 14, 2014, 10:48:16 AMI don't know why Scribus doesn't always default to opening the properties palette on loading every time. The functionality available without it is so basic there will be few times you don't need it. That's just my opinion though.

it's like the other windows (scrapbook, layers, arrange pages...) the position is stored in a text file - on the next launch scribus rebuilds the last workspace arrangement. i don't see, what's wrong with this...

utnik
Title: Re: Where are the tools??
Post by: GarryP on May 14, 2014, 02:24:10 PM
There's nothing wrong with it, if it works properly every time. It just doesn't work properly every time - in my experience - which was my main point.

(See: http://forums.scribus.net/index.php/topic,1286.0.html for an example of where things have gone wrong.)

If I can re-word my suggestion: It might be nice if there was an option - set to "on" by default - to always open the properties palette whenever Scribus starts up regardless of whether it was open when Scribus last closed down or not. This would stop the issue reported above. (I can't remember if the PP is automatically opened on fresh installations but I've a feeling that it should be if it isn't.)

And users who didn't want that happening could set the option to "off". It would be not much different to the already-existing "Show Splashscreen on Startup" option.

But, like I said, it's just my opinion. It's not a major issue but new users sometimes need a bit of extra help.
Title: Re: Where are the tools??
Post by: utnik on May 14, 2014, 04:35:13 PM
hi garry

Quote from: GarryP on May 14, 2014, 02:24:10 PM(See: http://forums.scribus.net/index.php/topic,1286.0.html (http://forums.scribus.net/index.php/topic,1286.0.html) for an example of where things have gone wrong.)

i know this example very well (from the linked thread and at least two more – one of them with the main window...) – but this wouldn't be resolved by opening the properties window at every launch (in the linked thread it was open...)
as a solution for this, a default position for every window could be defined. if the windows aren't reachable, a click on a 'default position' button would give you a reset.

as one of my main computers is a 1440/900px laptop, i don't like every possible window being open by default (and pressing f2 occasionally isn't that hard...)

utnik
Title: Re: Where are the tools??
Post by: GarryP on May 14, 2014, 05:18:28 PM
Yeah, some kind of "reset window positions" button somewhere would be good but I feel that some kind of "sanity check" within the code that opens the windows would be better. Just so it makes sure the window is wholly visible. (I remember reading another post where their dialog opened too big to fit on the whole screen so they couldn't press the buttons, or something like that.) If the user wants to move it once it's open then that's up to them.

The only reason why I gave that particular example is that it shows that the code which opens the windows on startup doesn't seem to work properly all of the time. The window was off the screen and I doubt the user could have dragged it there unless their mouse pointer goes off-screen. (Yes they could have changed display size, and I'm aware of multi-monitor set-ups, but that's against the point I'm trying to make.)

As for the next bit, I didn't say every possible window, just the PP because that's got all of the most-used stuff in it. And you would be one of the users I'd suspect that would uncheck the "always open the PP" option - as mentioned in my scenario above - so it wouldn't be a problem for you or others with the same requirements.

Yes, pressing F2 isn't difficult - unless your F2 button is broken! - but a new user wouldn't necessarily know what to do if the window went missing - as shown in the original post.

It's not very intuitive to know that you have to open the properties palette if you don't know what the properties palette is. It's sometimes a case of: "That window I always use, and has always been there, has gone missing. How do I find out what it was called so I can find out how to get it back?". Not everyone knows what the correct name is for stuff, and if you don't know the name of it you can't search for answers.

I was just thinking of new users, not experts like yourself, but I do get your point.
Title: Re: Where are the tools??
Post by: utnik on May 14, 2014, 07:51:12 PM
hi garry

Quote from: GarryP on May 14, 2014, 05:18:28 PMI was just thinking of new users, not experts like yourself, but I do get your point.

yes, for beginners there are lots of traps. you can't remove them all – but you're right some could be made more intuitive...

btw.: i'm not an expert, i try to understand what i need for my work – nothing else...

utnik
Title: Re: Where are the tools??
Post by: cardioid on May 14, 2014, 10:15:22 PM
On my system (Mac 10.6.8) the properties now may be open on launch or may not be. In any case, when it opens, it always opens in the same location which is to the far left of my dual monitor setup. That's not where I want it and I always have to move it closer to my workspace. It's not a big deal, but interesting that some folks here are having a different experience.

Oh and I forgot to mention that the properties pane has the nasty habit to grey out completely. I need to occasionally restart to get it to behave again.

Sorry bout those nasty smilies in my system info. Noticed that on my initial post, too. It's supposed to be 'ten-point-six-point-eight'.

Stefan
Title: Re: Where are the tools??
Post by: grols on July 16, 2014, 07:54:36 PM
just press F2