Splitting a large document into several smaller documents?

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satirechief

I run Scribus 1.4.2 on a computer with 8 GB of RAM. However, it is extremely laggy. It wasn't always this way. The document got slower and slower as it got bigger. Right now, the document is around 300 pages long, and it takes 5-10 seconds to change just ONE character in the document.

It seems clear to me that the lag I experience is a direct result of the length of the document. Because the document consists of one very long linked text frame, it has been suggested that those linked frames are the cause of the problem and that I may be able to fix it by splitting the document up into smaller chunks.

The problem is that I've already invested a lot of time into this project. Is there a way I can split the document up easily without typesetting everything from scratch? One suggestion was to make multiple copies of the document and delete all unwanted pages from each copy to form the desired chunks. However, I found that deleting pages doesn't affect the text of the document. When I delete a page, the text frame on that page remains and simply gets placed on the page that gets moved down to take the place of the deleted plage.

Please help!

Nermander

I think that in Scribus 1.5 you can break linked frames while also breaking the content.

In earlier versions however the content will be reflowed, thus you will have to manually split the content.

a.l.e

sadly, scribus 1.4 does not really have fix for your problem and i'm not sure you should try to use the 1.5 development version. (there is no way back :-)

there is one thing that is important to know: scribus does not love long documents, that's true, but what it hates even more are long chains of texts...

to get more performance out of scribus, you should try to reduce the number of frames you're chaining together. that helps more than reducing the number of pages overall.

once you do that it will be easier to split your document in multiple frames.

but both (fewer pages and shorter chains) are probably good habits when working with scribus.

if it's really impractical for you to manually delete the exceeding text from the frames chain a short script could be helpful... but i should try it out first...

satirechief

Quote from: Nermander
I think that in Scribus 1.5 you can break linked frames while also breaking the content.

In earlier versions however the content will be reflowed, thus you will have to manually split the content.

If I understand you correctly, breaking linked frames in 1.5 won't result in the red "X" at the bottom of the first page's text frame, right?

If I break linked frames, will there be any chance to the appearance of the document? I ask this because in a few of my pages, I had a second text frame on top of the first text frame, and the second set of text frames on those pages all had to be linked for the text to line up with the text in my first set of text frames. I am concerned about possible alignment issues.

Quote from: a.l.e
sadly, scribus 1.4 does not really have fix for your problem and i'm not sure you should try to use the 1.5 development version. (there is no way back :-)

When you say there's no way back, I assume you mean I can't reopen a document with 1.4.2 if I've touched it with 1.5. But would there be problems with the 1.4.2 document if I open it with 1.5 and permanently stay with 1.5? I have backup copies should anything go wrong, so I think it's worth a try. If 1.5 solves my lag problems, that would make all the trouble worth it.

utnik

hi satirechief

Quote from: satirechief on September 02, 2015, 11:12:13 PMIf I break linked frames, will there be any chance to the appearance of the document? I ask this because in a few of my pages, I had a second text frame on top of the first text frame, and the second set of text frames on those pages all had to be linked for the text to line up with the text in my first set of text frames. I am concerned about possible alignment issues.

if your book has some logical sections, i would split the frames between them. as there's no easy way, the best solution might be to begin at the end of the book and  work backwards:

       
  • select the last section
  • cut it out (ctrl +x)
  • open the chain of the text frames
  • paste the section in the first frame of the empty chain
  • repeat this steps with every section...
...and finally check all the sections (text chains) about 'shifted' layouts and text overflow.
your document will be processed faster and the danger of layout confusions will be reduced to one section for every changes you make somewhere...

Quote...if I open it with 1.5 and permanently stay with 1.5? I have backup copies should anything go wrong, so I think it's worth a try.

if you don't know scribus1.5, you may better stay with 1.4.
i wouldn't recommend the step to 1.5 in the middle of a big project. if you 'kill' your document in some way, you may lose a whole lot of your layout work...

utnik

satirechief

I want to make it very clear that I have nothing to lose. My 1.4.2 document is almost completely unusable due to the super slow editing speed.

That said, I tried 1.5.0 on a copy of the document and the results were less than amazing. When I unlinked one text frame from another, I faced the same problem as in 1.4.2: there was a red "X" at the bottom right of the first text frame. I think this means the text was reflowed.

The lag issue also persists. My choices at this point are grim. I either remake the entire document from scratch with 1.4 while splitting it into different chunks, or I remake the entire document from scratch with 1.5 while splitting it into different chunks.

I would welcome any suggestions before I have to resign myself to either fate.

Nermander

If I recall correct (I haven't used it) there is the choice in 1.5 to either break the frame links as in 1.4 OR break while also breaking content.

Not sure if it's a checkbox or if it's two separate menu items.

a.l.e

in 1.5 you have a menu entry that says unlink with cut.

you can try it out... but you have been warned! most things work very well (and are much nicer than in 1.4!) but it's not a stable version so there are also things that will crash on you and potentially break your document (so make backups of your .sla files!). once you have got used to it and know where to put your hands it's a pleasant experience..

on the other side, as utnik and i already said, i think that there are ways to rescue your 1.4 document by cutting its text flow in chunks... it's a bit tedious but there must be ways...

good luck!
a.l.e

satirechief

Quote from: a.l.e
in 1.5 you have a menu entry that says unlink with cut.

Please walk me through how to access this menu entry. I couldn't find it.

a.l.e

select the item where you want to break the flow and:

item > text frame links > unlink text frames with text cut

(please, ignore the unlink with copy entry... i hope it will disappear one day, since nobody could find a use case for it...)