Page templating

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Antariz

I've been poking around in Scribus with the intention of creating a short booklet. After some playing around with master pages, these look to be static background layers which can be applied to pages in the file, but have no actual bearing over the style of the pages they're on.

What I'm looking for is a way to define the style of a page for consistency. e.g. I would define a '2 columns with heading' template which I can apply to a set of pages, then with each of those pages insert the appropriate heading and body text. This would enable me to make layout changes after creating all the pages, so if I decide the columns are too close together, or the font needs to change, I can simply update the template and all the pages will reflect the new changes.

There looks to be a way to define font styles at least, but I'm yet to find a way to define a 'page style'.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers,
Antariz

Nermander

Unfortunately not possible to do that with Scribus.

GarryP

Welcome to the forum Antariz.

As has already been said, Scribus can't do what you want it to but there may be ways of doing something that's a small part of the way there.

You are correct that master pages are, essentially, page backgrounds. They have their uses but they're no good for what you want as their content is always the same on every page that they are applied to (with some exceptions, such as page numbers).

One option you have is to use a Scrapbook. Scrapbooks can hold any Scribus object or set of objects. This means that you can create a layout and save the layout into a Scrapbook to be used again later. One thing you don't get is the ability to "live link" between objects and the Scrapbook so once you use something from the Scrapbook it's no longer related to the original in any way.

There isn't much documentation on the Scrapbook so you might have to experiment a little to get used to how they work but if you keep using the same layouts then it might be worthwhile. The menu items you need are: "Windows -> Scrapbook" and right-click "Send to Scrapbook". They should get you started.

I've read that it's possible to share Scrapbooks between documents but I don't know how well this works. Different documents may have different styles etc. and if you try and use a Scrapbook item that uses a same-name-different-formatting style in two different documents there may be problems. I don't know though as I've not tried it myself. Best to see for yourself first.

Nermander

I was thinking of suggesting the scrapbook, but from what I understand Antariz wants to be able to change the page design after designing tha pages (and that will not be possible even if you have used the scrapbook).

QuoteThis would enable me to make layout changes after creating all the pages, so if I decide the columns are too close together, or the font needs to change, I can simply update the template and all the pages will reflect the new changes.

GarryP

You're correct that the Scrapbook doesn't do what Antariz wants but, since it's the closest thing that Scribus has to offer, I thought it might be worthwhile mentioning just in case it helps a little. Better to know and not use than not know.

Antariz

Thanks for the help. As noted the scrapbook is helpful for initialising each layout, which isn't quite what I'm after, but good to know none-the-less.

I've used Photoshop in the past to do essentially all of my graphic design, and was looking for a more dedicated program to tackle a larger project. The thought of designing each article in Photoshop, then wanting to tweak something and having to adjust 50+ instances of it made me question my 'I have a hammer, therefore everything looks like a nail' approach. However it appears this will also be the case here, so I better just get it right the first time whatever I use!

This may just be my naive view of a program I barely know, versus a program I've used for years (and I must be wrong on this front, as Adobe Illustrator exists), but I'm not currently seeing the benefit of switching. From what I understand, master pages provide me auto page numbering, and I can flow text between text boxes, which are neat features but hardly difficult to work without.

Thanks again for the replies, it's one thing to Google for features that exist, but confirming things don't exist is a lot harder!

GarryP

You're welcome.

Even if Scribus had such a feature I'm not sure I would trust myself to use it. Too much potential for making inadvertent changes for my liking.

I would prefer to tweak each page individually instead of hoping that such a "global" change wouldn't mess things up without me noticing. Maybe that's just me.

I've not used Photoshop for more than twenty years so I can't imagine it's anything like what I was using but I think you might find that Scribus has various tools/features that could make production of a document quicker than you think, once you've got used to it anyway. It's all personal preference though.

Good luck with your booklet either way.