Hi All,

I've downloaded Scribus, the Linux DTP programme, and can't make head or tail of the Scribus tuturial when it comes to actually starting to use the program.

When I open a New page, I can insert a Text frame. I assume that I should be able to type directly into this but I can't locate the cursor into the frame at all. Left and right clicks don't work.

Any ideas anyone?

When you say the "tutorial," are you talking about this?

http://wiki.scribus.net/index.php/Laying_out_articles

after you make a text box you have to select the text tool (the toolbar icon that looks like the letter A) to add your content to the frame.

the scribus site has some documentation:
http://docs.scribus.net/index.php?la...cribustutorial

what exactly are you trying to do? scribus is more of a page layout/prepress program like quark xpress than a word processor like ms word, OO writer, abiword, etc. maybe you need page layout, but if not, you'll probably have an easier time with a wp.

Hello Fellas,

Aysiu,

I didn't manage to find that on the Scribus website. It may be just what I'm after and will let you know how I get on.

Slackhack,

What I want to do is to turn out a monthly newsletter to be sent out to about 100 people. I've been trying to get a simple format of a sheet of A4 paper, in landscape orientation, folded so the left half comes over the right half. This will give a four page newsletter. I hope I've managed to make that clear.

I've been trying Open Ofice Writer without much luck. All sorts of odd things come up. I can't get a border round the pages to be exactly equal on all sides; when I try a two column format, I can't edit one column without the script moving in the adjacent column; and some of the fonts don't look too good on the screen which makes composition tougher than it should be.

I may be being too fussy about my work, I dunno. It occured to me that a DTP would do what I wanted, hence my post.

I appreciate your reponses very much.

Hi,

Well, I don't know. I'm either thick or somethings wrong. Perhaps you'd better not answer that.......

Aysiu,

I couldn't open the link to 'Laying out articles' so I tried www.scribus.net. No luck, I just got routed to www.scribus.co.uk. There, I couldn't find the part of the tutorial I was after.

Slackhack,

I can't find the icon that looks like an A at all. I only have one toolbar showing so maybe it's on another one. Trouble is I can't find any way of opening it.

It's after one in the morning here and I feeling groggy. I'll try again tomorrow.

Any further advice in the meantime would be welcome.

Thanks,

It's on the same toolbar as the text frame icon. The text frame has to be selected for it to show up, or else it will be grayed out. If the toolbar isn't showing, you can launch it from the Tools menu (it's listed on there as "tools"). If you have the text box selected, typing an uppercase E (shift + e) will also put you in the text frame to start adding text.

For a newsletter type of document, Scribus is exactly what you need. It's really excellent when you start to work with it, very close to Quark. It's really too bad the tutorials aren't better. But just play around with it a little and it'll start making more sense.

Hello Slackhack,

The light has dawned. My icon isn't an A but a hand alongside what looks like an upright hambone. I had played about with it but didn't realise that the text box is selected when there are red squares on the perimeter because the cursor doesn't appear until you start typing. Told you I was thick, didn't I?

Anyway, I've got it now, thanks to you. I think I'm going to enjoy playing with Scribus.

Best wishes,

Great! It's a cool program. I guess that is a lesson to both of us to mention Version numbers. I have Scribus 1.3.0 and the text add is an A, so I have to assume you have a different version. Sorry about that, but glad you figured it out. Have fun.