hi
first, make sure that your version of scribus does not contain bugs with the editing of items in a group (at least test that the actions you want to perform are bug free... the current 1.5.6svn should work correctly)
there are a few more things that might be relevant
- alt-click does indeed select an item inside of a group;
- alt-double-clicking should select and enter the item edit mode. depending on you system, your hand and your mouse it might be easier or harder to do.
- the alternative is to alt-click and then press the "e" key (for edit)
- a further alternative is to click on the group with the mouse and then select the item inside of the group in the outline (the group will be pre-selected)
- finally, make sure that your DE/WM does not use the alt key for window management but uses the WIN key (the SUPER-L key)! ... this is a must have when doing graphics on linux (
https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/86813/how-to-use-super-l-instead-of-alt-in-xfce-for-resizing-moving-windows)