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Scribus => General Discussion => Topic started by: Jessy on July 25, 2024, 06:16:09 PM

Title: Looking for Advice on Using Scribus to Import and Format Data Tables
Post by: Jessy on July 25, 2024, 06:16:09 PM
Hello Everyone 8),

I'm contacting you for help with import and structuring data tables because I'm new to Scribus. A project I'm working on calls for the inclusion of multiple detailed tables, however I'm having some trouble making sure they import correctly and are displayed correctly in my document.

Here's a quick rundown of my present procedure and the problems I'm having:

Bringing Tables into Excel:


Keeping the Integrity of the Table:


How to Format Tables in Scribus:


Managing Big Tables:

A few of my charts are quite big and take up several pages. What is the suggested method in Scribus for dealing with these tables? It would be especially helpful to have any advice on handling the footers and headers for these tables.

I've read through the Scribus manual and other internet resources, but I think more useful advice from seasoned users could address these issues. It would be really beneficial if you could provide any guidance, instructions, or minitab examples.

Thank you in advance.
Title: Re: Looking for Advice on Using Scribus to Import and Format Data Tables
Post by: PatJr on July 25, 2024, 11:50:50 PM
tables in scribus are a bit primitive
can you post up a sample file as an example of a table you would want to import into scribus?
Title: Re: Looking for Advice on Using Scribus to Import and Format Data Tables
Post by: mnawij on July 30, 2024, 09:01:37 PM
Hi Jessy, I would recommend saving them as image format or pdf from excel and placing them into Scribus, unless you need to edit the tables in Scribus. It is the best way that I have found for quick work to get the job done.

Cheers!

mnawij
Title: Re: Looking for Advice on Using Scribus to Import and Format Data Tables
Post by: Flaxx on September 06, 2024, 11:45:16 AM
Quote from: mnawij on July 30, 2024, 09:01:37 PMHi Jessy, I would recommend saving them as image format or pdf from excel and placing them into Scribus, unless you need to edit the tables in Scribus. It is the best way that I have found for quick work to get the job done.

Cheers!

mnawij

Even if I love Scribus and even if your proposal works fine for printed media, it doesn't in cases where you finally want to produce a readable PDF that should be accessible for people needing screen readers as they have reduced visual abilities.

I really would prefer a future Scribus version being able to import PDF or SVG files containing readable text - even correctly formatted if the fonts are either installed or (in case of PDF) properly embedded.
Title: Re: Looking for Advice on Using Scribus to Import and Format Data Tables
Post by: Nermander on September 07, 2024, 07:31:33 AM
If you are producing PDFs for other uses than print, I am not sure Scribus is the right tool.

Scribus has always had the focus on print production, there are a lot of other options out there if you don't need PDFs for high quality printing.
Title: Re: Looking for Advice on Using Scribus to Import and Format Data Tables
Post by: Joop on October 18, 2024, 07:42:12 PM
I don't know if it is a big table, which is not wise. Big tables are always difficult to read for your  "customers". I had a table in LibreOffice Calc, it was 5x5 and I made a 5x5 table in Scribus and copied the cells one by one to Scribus. Doing it in one time is not understood by Scribus, after all its only  a make-up program. If you copy cell by cell you have also the advantage that you can do everything with that cell, even things which are not possible in Calc (or Excel for that matter). So, if you want to  publish a table say 30x20, forget it, unless you have to publish for science or so, those readers are  used to that kind of formats, but if you have seen science publications, its not that fancy make-up and widely spaced lines of text.