Open Office Woes/Scribus Joy

[Kat Kanning]

I'm trying to switch over to doing the KFP in Open Office Writer.  I spent all day yesterday at it and was about to jump up and down and scream and cry.  It was so frustrating!! 

I'm trying to place linked frames along with photos on 8, 3 column pages.  It seems like every time I move one of those objects, the whole freakin document decides to move.  By the time I was done yesterday, the whole thing was so jumbled, I might as well throw it all out and start over.  Is there any way to lock objects down so they don't move anymore, or at least separate pages so moving things on one page doesn't effect the next pages?

[Dan]

Not to add to your frustration, but I think Scribus is the better tool for desktop publishing.

Use OpenOffice to write the content (spell check, grammer check, etc) and then use Scribus to layout the print form with all the pretty pictures, side boxes, ads, etc.

Treat yourself to some of the (many) video tutorials about publishing with scribus:
  http://wiki.scribus.net/index.php/Scribus_Video_Tutorials

[Tom Sawyer]

Sorry to hear of your frustrations Kat.

Learning curve plus deadline equals stress. My life in a nut shell.

Once I had to completely re-edit an hour long show that was to air on ABC in 2 1/2 days with no sleep. The software had eaten my edit decision list. I made the deadline, but probably aged 5 years in the process.

To add insult to injury. The producer screwed me out of my credit and I had to fight for a year to get paid.

Good times. 

[Kat Kanning]

Not to add to your frustration, but I think Scribus is the better tool for desktop publishing.

Use OpenOffice to write the content (spell check, grammer check, etc) and then use Scribus to layout the print form with all the pretty pictures, side boxes, ads, etc.

Treat yourself to some of the (many) video tutorials about publishing with scribus:
  http://wiki.scribus.net/index.php/Scribus_Video_Tutorials

Thank you Dan!!  If I'm going to learn a new program, it might as well be one designed for this.

[Kat Kanning]

If this is your life, Tom...man, your life sucks!    If I get desperate enough, I'll hook up my old computer and do the paper again on that.

Doesn't look like that Scribus has a Windows Vista version. 

[Dan]

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/scribus/scribus-1.3.3.9-win32-install.exe

First rule of scribus: scribus does crash: save often.  That it keeps a history of edits in the saved file means you can still undelete after a crash/restore.

[dalebert]

Doesn't look like that Scribus has a Windows Vista version. 

You call yourself an anarchist?! Switch to Linux. 

[CNHT]

Think Different

www.apple.com

[41mag]

Jane, my Mac is running Linux.   

[CNHT]

Jane, my Mac is running Linux.   

Well? You can run 3 or 4 different things at one time on your Mac...that's the point!

[SethCohn]

Doesn't look like that Scribus has a Windows Vista version. 

Even better than Dan's link: https://sourceforge.net/projects/portablescribus/

This is a portable version.  Stick Scribus and the current paper(s) you are working on onto a USB flash drive, and you have the entire paper ready to go, runnable on any windows computer, no install required, (ie at another Porc's place if need be, should you be traveling), and best of all, easy to grab and go should the need arise, such as a raid.  One never knows when you'll need it, running NH's best underground newspaper... a few backup USB sticks (all cheap these days), and you'll have complete redundancy.

We now return you to your sethfree nhfree, already in progress.  This interruption brought to you by the letters G, P, and L.

[David]

Doesn't look like that Scribus has a Windows Vista version. 

We now return you to your sethfree nhfree, already in progress.  This interruption brought to you by the letters G, P, and L.

  Don't be a stranger.   

[SethCohn]

  Don't be a stranger.   

I'm pretty strange no matter what.

I have a reputation to uphold.  As many know, I'm the Yang to Russell's Yin, The Seth Lord, He who shall not be Named.
I'm the man behind the curtain, pulling all the strings... (using grep for the harder bits)

[Kat Kanning]

The windows version of scribus seems to run on my computer.  IT'll take me a while to learn it though.  It seems to only want to use one of my fonts 

Thanks for the advice

I finally started over on my old computer.  Almost done now.  Calm has returned to the Kanning house.

[Dan]

I'd love to hear about the learning curve.  Did you watch the video tutorial(s)?