Why?

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lab24

Hi all:
Complete novice when it comes to Scribus.  I have been watching YouTube and playing with the actual program, but I'm missing something.

I have about 30 OpenOffice documents that I want to merge into 1 huge file and eventually print through a service..  I have formatting all done, pictures, etc. in each .odt file.

But - if I'm understanding correctly - if I were to to convert this to Scribus, I would have to:

  • Import each document
    re-paginate it, since Scribus doesn't handle the page breaks
    re-add and re-position the photos
    rebuild the bolds, the italics, the font changes, etc.

So, I'm not understanding why I'd use Scribus.  I do understand the right/left page margins for printing issue.  I do NOT understand the color 'templates', etc, but I''m assuming they let me make sure my colors are more accurate when printed.

Is there more?  I only ask, because MY side of the equation seems like it will take forever, even with master pages and styles?

I'm not even knowledgeable enough to ask the right questions, but would like to understand if this is even the right way to proceed.

Thanks for your help.

Lab24

digirew

Just curious why you don't just stick with open office and merge all your files in that program....and then generate the PDF you need for print? (or even generate individual PDF files and use another program to put all PDf files together after).


Scribus is a powerful desktop publishing software. You will have alot more control over the entire document by using a program like scribus.


Openoffice is a simple word processor.


If all your files are already done in open office, I assume it did what you needed it to do and all you need to do now is print.

digirew

You can also start reading here...

https://wiki.scribus.net/canvas/Word_Processing_vs_DTP


Doing more google searches will give you a better idea the pros and cons of word processors vs desktop publishing.

a.l.e

hi lab24

why? because!

jokes aside: as digirew wrote, you're welcome to do your whole work with libreoffice and you don't need to use scribus.
if you're comfortable with using libreoffice, and you're happy with the result, and the print shop accepts the pdfs created with libreoffice. of course.

now, where is the issue?
scribus is a layout program, so, if you already did the whole layout in libreoffice, why are you trying to use also scribus?
indeed, just create the pdfs from LO and merge them later.

the idea is that libreoffice is good at creating content and scribus is good at doing the layout work.
of course you can layout with libreoffice and create the content with scribus.
if you're happy with that, no need for changes.
if you're unhappy (why are you asking why?), you now might have some information that can help you improve your workflow.

scribus is not a better tool than libreoffice.
it's a different tool.
even if some features are in common.

ciao
a.l.e

lab24

Thanks to all who replied.

I'm still not sure I understand though, although I'm happy enough with the answers I'm seeing here.

I'm guessing my real question comes down to this:

   If a word processor is what you work with to create documents...why is the page layout program so unable to work with those words? [ import with page breaks, auto page creation, etc.]

But in any case, again..thanks for the information.  I believe I'll skip on Scribus for now and see where I go from here.

Cordially yours,
LAB24

a.l.e

scribus can very well work with documents coming from libreoffice.

but you can't import layouts, just content and some basic formatting.

why is it this way?

just think about the most striking difference between write and scribus: scribus has pages, write does not (of course, write has pages too, but they are created automatically, and are not really in your control).

or how easy it easy in scribus to mix text flowing in a custom way from page to page with images that are placed at a fixed position. and what a struggle it is to do the same with write.
on the other side, if you need your images to flow with the text, it will be easier to do so with write... (but, then, you're not in control of the result)

all in all, if you have a simple layout in write, scribus could "easily" automatically import it. but it would also be easy for you to redo the layout in scribus.
if the layout in write is complex, scribus will have a hard time recognizing all the small details and you will need to check everything twice and make sure that nothing is out of place.
at the end it's probably easier to recreate the layout correctly.

also, scribus offers many more manual customization features for the layout that make it worth to work with it. if you don't use them, you can stick with libreoffice. and that's more than fine!
if you want them, you can try both and see what best fits you.
if you need them, you don't have the choice: you will have to learn how to use scribus.

while the integration of scribus and write can for sure be improved, you need to understand the differences between the two.
and forget about the idea that one is better than the other.
they are different tools, for different tasks.
even if for some tasks you can use both.

there is no sharp separation between the two, but i hope that it's getting clearer, what the differences are.

ciao
a.l.e

Nermander

Yes, the question is Why?

As in "Why do you want to use Scribus?"

If you do not want more control over the layout than your word processor gives, why not generate the PDF from the word processor instead?