View Issue Details
| ID | Project | Category | View Status | Date Submitted | Last Update |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0017078 | Scribus | Master Pages | public | 2023-12-17 11:59 | 2023-12-18 14:06 |
| Reporter | ehbowen | Assigned To | |||
| Priority | normal | Severity | minor | Reproducibility | N/A |
| Status | new | Resolution | open | ||
| Platform | Linux | OS | Ubuntu Studio | OS Version | 22.04 |
| Product Version | 1.5.8 | ||||
| Summary | 0017078: Feature Request: Automatic Page Headers from TOC Attribute | ||||
| Description | Requesting a new optional master page element which will allow the dynamic insertion of the active (most recently defined) TOC element on specified master pages. | ||||
| Steps To Reproduce | N/A | ||||
| Additional Information | I use Scribus to format novel-length manuscripts for publication. One commonly seen element is chapter headings at the top of every page, or every other page, for the current chapter. Scribus already has a Table of Contents generator which works off of a tagged attribute for each chapter. How about a master page element, similar to the current one for inserting page numbers, which inserts the text of the active TOC attribute in a defined header box on each master page? There should be a way of suppressing this for image pages and pages with non-text content (tables, etc), but it would be a welcome addition for book formatting and similar. | ||||
| Tags | autoframes, text box, TOC | ||||
| Patch | No | ||||
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i have created a python script that is pretty good at creating a TOC based on styles: https://github.com/aoloe/scribus-script-repository/tree/master/table-of-contents i'd like to see it tested a bit more, and when the features are stable i plan to convert to c++ code for scribus. ideally, it would replace the existing TOC engine (which as far as i can tell is not really usable and has almost never been used in the real world...) but i'm not sure that the TOC code can be useful for putting the current chapter title in the header. the biggest difference is that the TOC is rebuilt on demand and does not have to be very efficient. i think that one would expect the header to automatically update when a new title is defined or the existing title is modified (without the need to run an action). then, the code around this needs to be really efficient (since parts of it is run on each key stroke) at least, this is how it works in libreoffice. |
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Well, this is my first real Scribus project and I did find the existing TOC generator usable for my purposes, albeit with a few hiccups. Since the tags are tied to frames and not to their contents, I'll need to go through and re-tag the frames once I get my manuscript document into its final form (right now I'm still experimenting with alternate layouts). But right now if I want chapter-specific page headers (and they're strongly recommended by those who promulgate the standards for Large Print books), I'm going to have to go through and manually paste text boxes onto some 500 pages. It would be so much better if there was a subroutine, or a script, which could look at the text frame attributes and say, "Hmm, there's a tag for 'Executive Decisions'. I'll go through and automatically insert a text box with 'Executive Decisions' in the area designated on the corresponding master page for each page until I run into the next tag." While it would be fantastic if this could be done dynamically as you edit, even a batch process run at the end of formatting would be better than copy-and-pasting 500 text boxes! (Actually 250, since I only have them on the even-numbered pages; odd-numbered pages have the book title which is easily set on the master page.) As far as my closing sentence about suppressing them, on rethinking that's easily done by having two styles of master page, one with the automatic header and one without. Apply as required. |
