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Scribus => Beginner Talk => Topic started by: mike_tyson on August 02, 2013, 06:21:53 AM

Title: figures and legends, how to always ensure the same distance between two frames?
Post by: mike_tyson on August 02, 2013, 06:21:53 AM
I am making a Scribus document with many figures, which have figure legends.

The figures are in image frames and the figure legends are in text frames.

I want to position the text frames such that they always have the same distance (in the y direction) from the image frame. I.e. the legend should be always in the same distance below the figure.

Right now I am positioning the two frames relative to each other by hand. But it is difficult.

What is the best way to achieve always the distance in the y-direction between two frames?
Title: Re: figures and legends, how to always ensure the same distance between two frames?
Post by: dave61430 on August 02, 2013, 05:44:26 PM
There are probably a number of ways. One is to place the text frame immediately under the image frame, then under column and text distances with the text frame selected, adjust the vertical setting to what you want.
If you are doing a number of these and want consistency, you can save a sample text box with settings to your scrapbook.
Title: Re: figures and legends, how to always ensure the same distance between two frames?
Post by: GarryP on August 05, 2013, 01:47:36 PM
If you group the frames you can move them around without changing their relative positions. However, you'll need to (temporarily) un-group them to make any changes.

P.S. Looking a bit into the future, 1.5.0svn looks like it'll do relative frame positioning - among lots of other good stuff - so it's worth keeping an eye on how that's going (or even compiling it yourself if you want it now).
Title: Re: figures and legends, how to always ensure the same distance between two frames?
Post by: utnik on August 05, 2013, 03:18:11 PM
hi garry

Quote from: GarryP on August 05, 2013, 01:47:36 PM...Looking a bit into the future, 1.5.0svn looks like...
...or even compiling it yourself...

this is not an easy task for windows users...

utnik
Title: Re: figures and legends, how to always ensure the same distance between two frames?
Post by: GarryP on August 05, 2013, 03:51:48 PM
Hi utnik.

I've just looked it up and I truly didn't realise how difficult it was to get 1.5.0svn up and running on Windows. Wow. It's a shame.

There's so much really good stuff in 1.5.0svn - which is why I've mentioned it from time to time - that it would be great if it was available to as many people as possible to test.

I hope that the dev team can find someone that can put in some of their valuable time so that Windows users can start using it soon and see what's coming up.

Having said that, I'll have to try and remember to stop recommending it in non-specific circumstances. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction on this.
Title: Re: figures and legends, how to always ensure the same distance between two frames?
Post by: a.l.e on August 08, 2013, 08:41:48 AM
Quote from: GarryP on August 05, 2013, 01:47:36 PM
If you group the frames you can move them around without changing their relative positions. However, you'll need to (temporarily) un-group them to make any changes.

P.S. Looking a bit into the future, 1.5.0svn looks like it'll do relative frame positioning - among lots of other good stuff - so it's worth keeping an eye on how that's going (or even compiling it yourself if you want it now).

in 1.4.x you'll need to ungroup the items to change their relative position.

but if you just want to edit their content, you can alt-click them to select a single item inside of a group... or even alt-double-click to enter its edit modus.
a well hidden feature, but an existing one :-)
(and iirc the alt-click "trick" also works for selecting the table's cells)

p.s.: concerning scribus 1.5svn: the easiest solution to try it out (or even using it) "under windows" is to setup a virtual machine with a recent ubuntu in it and add the PPA created daily by the ubuntu project (on request by mr. shuttelworth himself...)
it's not hard to do and it's all klickibunti, but you should look for somebody in your neighborhood to help you set up the virtual machine.
Title: Re: figures and legends, how to always ensure the same distance between two frames?
Post by: GarryP on August 08, 2013, 12:52:30 PM
Thanks a.l.e.

That's a great tip for editing grouped frames. I'll have to remember that one as it could save a lot of time.

P.S. And, after a bit of playing around, I've noticed that both Alt-Right-Click and Ctrl-Alt-Click bring up the context-sensitive menu for the clicked-on frame too. Brilliant.