Paragraph spacing

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Karela

I am sure the option exists somewhere, I have just yet to find it...

I am working on a few layouts where I would like to have different spaces between lines/paragraphs, but can't seem to find a way to change this (other than pressing "enter" once or twice, which is not as subtle as I might like).

For example I am working on a concert programme and I would to have something like:

VIOLIN
      (small space)
name
      (small space)
name

       (big space)
VIOLA
       (small space)
name

I have tried playing with "fixed line space" and highlighting text on the first line (which has worked for me in other programmes), but it seems to change all the text in the paragraph rather than the space in between. I don't seem to be able to highlight an empty line.

Any suggestions would be most welcome!

utnik

hi karela

you should work with paragraph styles (f3).
for a style called 'instruments' you could define some space above the paragraph.

working with styles will save you a lot of time in the long run – if you have to change a font for some reason, just edit the style definitions; or you can import styles from an existing .sla file...

utnik

Karela

Brilliant, thank you for making our acquaintance!

I have been making some styles to work with, already a big improvement, but I have a few questions:

Can I set a paragraph style to only some of the text block?

For example if I have "instrument" style for big line breaks and "name" style for smaller ones, I am running into difficulty applying both styles to text in the same block. When I highlight a line and try to apply a style, it just returns to "no style", which means I still have to choose between applying  "instrument" style or "name" style- which is what I wanted to avoid in the first place.

And is it possible to apply a paragraph style without the characters? I have some black text and some white, some larger sized headings and some smaller text body, but if I want to apply my paragraph style, it makes all the text the same size and colour. I can't seem to find a place to choose "no character" in the paragraph style.

Thanks!

utnik

Quote from: Karela on May 14, 2014, 05:52:59 PMCan I set a paragraph style to only some of the text block?

what sort of text block? – if it's the paragraph, you can't. paragraph styles are for whole paragraphs!

Quote...is it possible to apply a paragraph style without the characters? I have some black text and some white, some larger sized headings and some smaller text body, but if I want to apply my paragraph style, it makes all the text the same size and colour. I can't seem to find a place to choose "no character" in the paragraph style.

you may define different character styles and apply one of them to your selection. but for titles, subtitles and the text body you should use different paragraph styles.

how do you apply the styles?

       
  • if the text frame is selected, the style will be applied to its whole content.
  • with the cursor somewhere in the text, a paragraph style affects only the paragraph wiht the cursor.
  • for character styles you need to select the respective part of the text.
hopa, that helps!
utnik

Karela

This helps a lot, I think my difficulty was in highlighting the line (which is considered as a paragraph since it has a break after it). Simply placing the cursor worked much better.

Still, if I have understood correctly, the ONLY way to change paragraph spacing is with these styles?

Will the styles stay in the programme memory when I open new documents or are they only for this document? (I have a French version and an English version, so this will affect the way I prepare the second document).

utnik

hi karela

the style definitions are stored inside the document.
if you need the same styles (maybe other parts of the layout too) in many documents, you should consider to bulid a template.
...or you may import a set of styles from an existing .sla file (like colors or master pages...)

utnik

FZ-inforen

Hi, I'm new to scribus, but not to DTP software.

So I think it's easy to get into it, I just have to find the places features are placed in.

Through OpenOffice or InDesign, I'm quite familiar with paragraph templates and try to use them regularly. But sometimes, you have to deal with exceptions that concern only one place in a document. For those cases, I was looking for a way to assign space before and after paragraphs without creating a special style for each single case. I haven't found it yet. Maybe it's because I'm not a native english speaker, but I only have found the same question from Kerala - but no answer neither. Isn't there really a way to assign a paragraph spacing apart from paragraph styles?

I would be quite thankful for a hint!

FZ-inforen