Beginner consider giving up - does it work with Zorin? Bugs?

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Jensus

I'm a new Scribus user, I had high hopes and I use other open source software that works well. But I wonder about Scribus. Is it full of bugs or am I just misunderstanding or not getting the documentation? I am working on a test document after watching some tutorials and trying to check the somewhat lacking manual. Does it work with Zorin OS?

I am considering giving up and instead useg Atticus or possibly InDesign. But if anyone can shed some light on the problems I have had, and it can be solved then maybe I can stay with Scribus.  :-\  Some problems are:

1) Why can I not unlink text boxes? The link tool works, the unlink tool just is unclickable. I have to delete a box.
2) Why can I not import images? I can only import vector graphics. It worked once, I managed to import a photo in the test document initially, but now it does not work. The get image option is blank.



goldenbrown

Hey there,

I actually use Scribus with Zorin OS and it works pretty ok.

Scribus indeed has some bugs, but generally works ok. There's for sure room for improvement (like it urgently needs a find and replace with character style function. I need this so bad! ><) But about your problems:

It's hard to know exactly was going wrong without details but,

1. I'm guessing that what's confusing you is that when you click the unlink tool, your mouse cursor won't change. But the tool is active. What you should do is the following: select the last text frame BEFORE the frame you want to unlink. Select the unlink text frame tool, then click on the text frame you want to unlink.

2. About the images, I'm not sure what could be going wrong. Can you provide a little more detail of how you're trying to import them?

Jensus

Thanks a lot for your quick reply!
I look forward to start formatting my book, so I am eager to get going. It is already half done in LibreOffice. I am glad to hear it should work with Zorin, which is a superb OS.

1) I tried your method, but it does not work. You're right, the cursor does not change. But I can not unlink, even doing what you said.
2) The import image thing, I create an image box. Right click on it, but the Get Image option is blank (not clickable). It is the same in the File menu, Import Image does not work, I can only Import vector graphics (the Import Image option is visible but light grey/not clickable).
(I am using Swedish language Scribus so I have to translate the names of the options)

goldenbrown

Hmmm, that's peculiar. I never experienced this type of problem before.

Do you have the option "show text chain" active? (you can find it in view> text frames> show text chain) this shows how the text frames are linked. If you have it active, does anything happen to it when you try to unlink?

About the images, it really beats me. Did you try double-clicking over the image frame? That also works to import images.

Maybe a possible workaround could be to use the script "direct image import" and then change the frame dimensions using the properties tab. :/ (not ideal, but it can work if you don't find the cause of the problem)

Are you using Scribus 1.7? Is it an appimage? I had some bugs when using the appimage, but the flatpak worked way better.

P.s. yes! Zorin is amazing!


Jensus

Thanks again. I am amazed at how friendly forums usually are on open source communities. Like on the /e/OS mobile phone community (for the mobile I am using).

Yes I have the show text chain active. I see the chains. Maybe I can live without unlinking, I could delete a box and create a new, I guess this does not delete the text anyway.

The image import, I feel a little stupid because double clicking works, I can then import! But I am not 100% stupid because the Get Image and Import still does not work. But we have probably found a workaround (I hope it will continue to work).

May I ask something else? To work with chapters, I mean sections of text, which then can be rearranged. I have not found documentation about that. Can perhaps someone point me in a direction or say something about that? I have a long document with different chapters which I have not decided the order of yet. In a program like Atticus this can be done easily, you see the chapters/sections in a menu to the left so you can just drag and drop, but I have not seen something like this in Scribus.

a.l.e

If you have issues with working with linking the frames, I would suggest you to first activate "View > Text Frames > Show Text Chain".
Then, it's a bit easier to follow what happens.

I'm attaching a screencast showing how you can achieve what you're aiming at...

get-image-link-unlink.gif

P.S.: as far as I can tell, what you are describing are not Scribus bugs... but, at least for the linking and unlinking, the way Scribus is doing it, can for sure be improved!

Jensus

Thanks!
I am doing that, what you show, but I can not unlink textboxes. The tool just does not work! But I can work around it, by deleting them and adding new.
Then, I can not Get Image, the option is blank. But I can work around it by double clicking on the image box.

It worries me however that there are things that cause trouble like this, to me it seems like bugs. If already I am encountering odd problems like this, I suspect there is more to come, that is why I wonder about these smaller but annoying things..

Jensus

Scribus for long documents?
Maybe I should create another thread for this, but I see that some do not recommend Scribus for longer documents/books, is this still true or is it for older versions?
What I want to work on will be approx 300 pages and quite image heavy. It will probably be quite a massive document. I would prefer not to split it into several sections, if possible, but have it all in one document and be able to rearrange chapters.
Would you say this is possible in Scribus?

goldenbrown

Quote from: Jensus on April 24, 2025, 08:24:09 PMMay I ask something else? To work with chapters, I mean sections of text, which then can be rearranged. I have not found documentation about that. Can perhaps someone point me in a direction or say something about that? I have a long document with different chapters which I have not decided the order of yet. In a program like Atticus this can be done easily, you see the chapters/sections in a menu to the left so you can just drag and drop, but I have not seen something like this in Scribus.

Hey Jensus, answering your question: I tend to work with chapters. I keep each chapter as a separated group of linked frames (all chapters in the same document, and in the order they should be printed), not sure if there's any documentation about it, but it works for me.

You can create sections in Scribus, but you can't rearrange them as easily as drag and drop.

I usually think (and this goes for Scribus, InDesign, Affinity Publisher, etc)that's a better idea to have your content already edited and organized, and use the publisher software only to creating the layout. It seems that Atticus is a program to create epubs, which very different from Scribus (which the focus is mostly print material or PDFs). When working with a classical publishing software, rearranging chapters like that will mess up your layout.   

About you document being image heavy... I'm not sure how well scribus would take it. My documents don't tend to had a lot of images, mostly text.

AdmFubar

Can Zorin use flatpacks, snaps, or appimages? If so, try one of those and see if the issue is present. That will determine whether it is scribus or a zorin issue.

ANs what version of Zorin and scribus are you using?
Using Scribus 1.5.8 & 1.6.3, 1.7.0 openSUSE 15.5
Advanced hobbyist

a.l.e

@Jensus , I cannot exclude that you're experience some bugs, but from my experience it seems rather unlikely.

The only bug I can think of, is the one where a document "steals" the context from another document, so before going further in checking what can be wrong, you should make sure that you have only one single Scribus document open.

And I don't think that a Linux distribution can mess up Scribus so badly that such things do not work, so it's also really unlikely that Zorin is at fault (whatever Zorin is...)

RodneyLee


Jensus

Thank you for all your answers.
I am using Zorin OS 16.3. Scribus is 1.6.4.

It seems I can work around these problems, if I am going to use Scribus.

Like Goldenbrown said: "You can create sections in Scribus, but you can't rearrange them as easily as drag and drop." This is something that would be so great to have, to be able to rearrange chapters.
In my case I need to do some writing and editing in Scribus, because of the nature of the book (lots of images and diagrams, it is about electronics).

I actually bought Atticus, because I was giving up on Scribus. But now that I am trying out Atticus, I feel it is very unintuitive and I don't like it at all. While Scribus is more complicated and I had some problems, it is more logically laid out. Not sure what to do now..

AdmFubar

Quote from: Jensus on May 03, 2025, 01:07:24 PMI actually bought Atticus, because I was giving up on Scribus. But now that I am trying out Atticus, I feel it is very unintuitive and I don't like it at all. While Scribus is more complicated and I had some problems, it is more logically laid out. Not sure what to do now..
Atticus is geared towards ebooks, is that type of platform you are producing for?
Using Scribus 1.5.8 & 1.6.3, 1.7.0 openSUSE 15.5
Advanced hobbyist

Jensus

I am writing for mainly print, but also an ebook version.

I will probably give up on Atticus and demand money back (30-day trial). It seems it does not have options for the book sizes I want, which is A4 or slightly smaller. And I don't see that Atticus does anything more than a simple word processor really.
I have tried LibreOffice (totally awful), Abiword (crashed instantly), Calligra Word (totally unusable), Reedsy (too simple). I am at a loss.. Only Scribus remain.
Or I am actually considering getting an old MS Word, anno 2016 or older..

How would you do it in Scribus? - I have a 100 page docx document, pure text divided in 10 chapters. I need to get it into Scribus, from there add maybe 100 images and do some text editing. What would be an experienced Scribus users process?