It's probably been said already, but you can link text boxes. So you can have long sections of content flow continuously from page to page without cutting and pasting.
A brilliant brilliant tutorial and totally what we are now going off of as we begin - as totally the noobiest of the noobies - to format then print the first of what are already many books waiting to be (self) published.
nice scribus intro Thank You one good thing about scribus, you own your file and it's not in some cryptic proprietary format that only a commercial product can read and edit
Thanks for the tutorial, it was very useful and I will definitely implement some of the things you showed. I noticed that you were manually cutting the overflow from one textbox into the next text box around the 50min mark. It is possible to link text boxes so that the overflow from one automatically goes into the next one (then link a third, fourth, so on). I saw it in another tutorial that I watched. If you link your text boxes, you should be able to copy and paste your whole chapter at once without manually editing each page's text box. Which I think would save you a large chunk of time. The icon for linking text boxes is next to the Story Editor icon. Or keyboard shortcut "n".
I was wondering the same thing exactly, I would imagine that such a function must exist. Otherwise, can you imagine having to add a missing word on Page 1? You would have to reformat the whole book lol.
So, here's a new trick. I know you mentioned you did not like using the "Automatic Text Frames" option. But I just created a new document with this option for 150 pages and then used File->import->get text and the entire text came, flowing between the pages. This will give you all the text in linked text boxes on all the pages and save all the manual adding and linking pages. This is what I wanted to be able to do. I don't know how this works with importing styles, though, which the place option in other programs will do.
@@1MKWilliams I see what you mean by it going back to the top when you edit text. It considers the whole thing on big block of text. I found this compromise approach on the web: "here's how i would import such extensive masses of text: when you set up the file adjust the page margins to fit the area for the text, tick the box for 'automatic text frames'. (scribus will create a text frame inside the margins on every document page. the frames are linked.) generate your file (with as many pages as you like…) unlink the frames where your first chapter begins set the cursor in to the first frame of the first chapter import this chapter unlink the chain of text frames after this chapter. follow with the second chapter in the next frame…" Doing things by chapters would be a good compromise. I saw a video on InDesign that suggested separate projects by chapter. It is a bummer that the formats don't come in. It would be nice to have a tool specifically for book formatting. I guess that's Vellum but only for the Mac...
@19:47 at this point you could save this as a Master in your own files and have it for every book! Front matter and back matter- I think that’s terms they use …. Have different formatting so I see why you’ll save sections differently. Good tutorial
@@1MKWilliamsThis is not straight forward as it seems. I cannot load Scribus to my computer…. Servers….Firewalls…Proxies…I gunna lose my mind. I do not speak this language. It’s a tech issue and I might not be able to understand any directions. Oddly, I didn’t get the page you show for Scribus, I have a ‘log in page’ but I didn’t create an account nor did you give us instructions to.
FYI - you don't need to open the text editor for everything. You can do basic editing by docking the properties window to the side of the main window. You can save a LOT of time by dropping down the windows menu and docking the properties, layers, alignment and text properties to be always visible.
Paul, I downloaded version 1.538 & is very different from MK's. She was kind to answer my questions. Do you know of any tutorials for version 1.5.8? What version is MK using?
Glad to have found you, dear. Thank you very much for your time and generosity for sharing your invaluable knowledge in such a comprehensive presentation. It means a lot to me and hopefully to millions others. I loved it! BRAVO!
7/15/2024 - I am 75% done with your tutorial, and I’m here to tell you that everything you’ve done I do with WordPerfect X6. I write chapters as separate files, and then use WordPerfect master document generation to link all the files into one file.
This is a really good video. I needed to know how to use Scribus at a basic level since I've never used it or any other desktop publishing software. This worked very well for me. Thank you!!
I just downloaded Scribus and am very thankful for your efforts on this video! Just checked though and found that when you have overflow text you can click on that little x to flow text to a new text frame. Like in InDesign.
MK, Awesome. Thank you. Your videos are the best. Unfortunately, I was following along and BAM! things changed. You explain it well and i appreciate what I did listen to & learned.
Ghostscript is only needed if you want to use the Scribus print preview function or if you are using EPS images that have to be rendered, both of which you’re apparently don’t use, so the error ,message can be ignored.
Peace and Blessings to you and yours M.K. Williams on this special occasion and time you are in. Once ready I would be honored to be assisted by you. Blessings
My ocd going in overdrive with the formatting tweaking in this video 😆 but an excellent tutorial overall. Learnt a lot from this video and it's definitely going to remain on my saved videos. Feeling like I'm going to reference certain TSs a lot
You can link the text boxes from page to page so the text flows between them and you don't have to manually figure out the break points on each page. 1) select the page with too much text. 2) go to item->Link text 3) click the text box with too much text and drag an arrow the text box on the next page. This trick should make things much easier and making edits much easier. The text will flow between the text boxes with any changes you make.
You can also just go to File-> Import (or Place, I'm not quite sure) and just have it import your whole text, already split into pages. Though I admire your mental strength to do it by hand. I would have crumpled and died after only fivxe pages or so...
Thank you for this tutorial! Very helpful with me getting started with Scribis. I tried to learn the program myself since I just need it for a short story to insert into something else but it just wasn’t working out and ugly lol
Scribus probably isn't the right tool for a short story. Libre Office Writer or AbiWord might be. Scribus is much more powerful if you need to layout mutiple pages differently, or have lots of images and captions.
Super tutorials. Very understandable. I am not sure how to import my files from the desktop (JPG Graphic Novel pages) into Scribus. Seems simple but I didn't figure it out.
Hi Norm, I'm glad you found this video helpful. Regarding importing images, you first need to add the image frame on the page where you would like the image to display. Once you had the frame on the page and it is selected you can go to file > import > get image and you will see options to import images that are on your local computer. Best of luck!
Hi Mary! Thank you so much for this very helpful video :-) I just finished my first book (for children) and I used indesign. For the second book I´d like to take scribus, as it is free. As the book is for children, I also added many coloured pictures to the text. As I´d like to know where I am with my pages and spaces for the pictures, I thaught it might be a good idea to write the text directly into scribus. Do you think this is a good idea? I thaugth it might save a lot of time to use this program from the beginning and just add the pictures whenever they are finished? What do you think?
I'd suggest having the edited and proofed text in a master doc. Put some text in as a placeholder maybe but always cross reference against the final text
Finished everything but the cover today- this tutorial was so helpful. Thanks again. I wonder if those automatic text frames would work better for me - surely there's a better way than to copy and paste each page? I feel like there should be. Next time I'll try it!
Thanks for this video.I'm a little envious of your ability to move around the text so well. Do you think I would be able to have at he end endnotes, then References, then Index, then About the author using Scribus as I am unable to do this on KGP templates or Kindle Create?
@@1MKWilliams I hope you will find time to help. I want to import ms doc file with 300 pages. I prepared 300 pages. 1) do I need to insert 300 text frames? One text frame for each page, manually? 2) when I import, what I should do so my file will fill all the frames and pages? I hope you help me
Thank you very much for this excellent video, M.K. Williams. I'm a beginner and you helped me a lot. Do you know if there's any way to import footnotes (not endnotes) from a Word/LibreOffice document? It'd be rather tedious to move them one by one if they are many.
That's a great question! I actually have not had to tackle footnotes in Scribus to date, sorry. But a lot of really savvy Scribus users have commented on this video, maybe they can help. Best of luck!
Hey I’m really glad I found your page it is exactly what I need to help me through the process. I was wondering if you would be able to help me with something ( I remember you said that you can take on jobs I’m not sure which Video) so I would really appreciate if you can respond. Thank you so much and I appreciate all the work you do, really. Thank you.
Can you add text over an image wit Scribus. For example I have a full page image in the background on the page before a chapter beginning and I want to add a quote on top of it.
Hmmm, I'm not sure about flattening it persay, however when I go to export the document to PDF, I click over to the "color" tab and select "printer" as the quality and it has always worked for me to have it accepted for printing. I'm not a graphic design expert, but thankfully many more savvy people than me have been commenting on this video and they may be able to confirm or correct me.
Thanks so much! Do you know a remedy for Scribus producing a 2Gb PDF file for a 132 pages book with black and white drawings? Something inside tells me that this size is not justified, not even with higher resolution images…
So, I will be purchasing my ISBNs soon and was wondering about the bar codes that Bowker also sells. Should I get a bar code for my book as well? How necessary is it? And, if I do buy one, who puts the barcode on the book, the book cover designer or the publishing platform (KDP, B&N Press, etc...)?
Hi Josie, great questions. Whether you purchase a barcode or not will really depend on your strategy. Barcodes are only needed for printed books (so if you do ebook only no need to purchase). You'll also need to decide if you will try to get the book into brick and mortar retailers. If that is you plan you'll want to purchase a barcode with the price listed and have the cover designer include it for you. If you don't plan to get the book into stores then you can go with the free no price listed barcode provided by KDP or Ingram Spark. I have a video that goes into more detail on the topic as well: ua-cam.com/video/zfbxXp4lSg4/v-deo.html best of luck!
MK Williams Thank you so much for providing that insight. I am new to this whole self-publishing world and need all the help that I can get. I highly appreciate your videos as well, I have been watching them like crazy, lol.
So glad I can help! Let me know if you have any specific questions for your book. I also do 1 on 1 consulting sessions to help first time authors navigate all those tiny decisions they need to make for the book. mailchi.mp/6631be0c687a/selfpublishingservices
I think I may have forgotten to include it in this video (it was already so long). What I do is keep a pad of paper next to me as I work in Scribus and write down the page number of each new chapter. Once the formatting is complete I go back to the front of the book and add the chapter titles and the page numbers. I don't use any automatic features for this in Scribus.
@@1MKWilliams InDesign has a TOC Generator based on Heading styles and will automatically generate the TOC along with it's corresponding page numbers. I usually create extremely large documents for my job. Usually use FrameMaker or InDesign and they both generate autotically. So I am guessing Scribus can do the same. I will need to find how to do this. Doing the notepad method would be too much work for me especially when others tend to keep adding last minute changes and pages can shift.
M.K. thank you for this video tutorial. Thus far you are the best and so is Scribus. I've tried a few others I returned for refunds. They were too convoluted. This is a multiple time trying with little frustration. You are doing a great job. Maybe you can answer a few things: 1) I can't make the program larger to see better. 2) I can't go back ion the program because I made an error following you. 3) sometimes you click and I can't see where. 4) I reached interring my title page but that's the only page I have on the screen vs your multiple pages on your screen. I really need to have this program work for me. Can you help? fred.
Hi Fred, it would be tough to troubleshoot without looking at your screen. There are very active scribus support message boards that may be more helpful in that regard. Best of luck!
8 years ago I spent $3000 to self-publish my first book. The process was not fun plus I don’t want to pay that much for my next several books. So I tried Fivver, spent $300 for editing, formatting and book cover for 35 pages ….. it was CRAP 💩and the book cover design completely laughable. I am now very motivated to diy and hope this software is the ticket.
Oh no! I'm so sorry to hear about the troubles you've had. Best of luck with the next book!! Services like 100Covers are reputable, know self publishing, and have fairly reasonable prices. May be worth investigating too: 100covers.com/?ref=49
I think you can import some of the styles like font size, bold, italics on newer versions. Probably on the same version you're using. I use 1.4.8. I am little worried about updating the software and I am not fully into Scribus yet. The video was very helpful. Thank you :)
Good to know about importing more styles, there is so much to learn about this program and I know I've only scratched the surface. I'm glad you found this video helpful!
I have another question... IngramSpark talks about rejection if the fonts are not embedded in the PDF. Is there an extra step to do that or will the fonts be embedded when you export the PDF as you explained?
Hi Cindy, I have never had an issue with the fonts and submitting to IngramSpark while I have used Scribus to format. I also stick with standard fonts (Garamond, Arial, Times New Roman, etc.)
Hello, the current version of Scribus (Version 1.6.0) only offers Single and Facing pages as Layouts. Is the latter the same as Double sided. There is also no 3 fold or 4 fold either - I guess it's all in the Templates right? Thanks!
Just started watching this and I didn't want to forget. when you are moving text boxes or whatever element into place. You can go to the Page option on the menu and select "snap to grid" and this will save you some fiddling. :D Also, rather than copy and pasting your text, why not right click the text box in Scribus and select "get text" then select your word document? at the 50 minute mark, why not link the text boxes so that the text flows?
Hi Raven, All excellent points and I'm glad you posted those here for others to see. The very first time I used Scribus I used an autopopulate function but did it wrong and it was a nightmare so I do it the "manual" way now. It takes longer but I haven't cussed at my computer lol
@@1MKWilliams oh my.. those auto text boxes can really mess things up. I used your tutorial to create myself a template. I found that if I write in LiberOffice, and then in Scribus click my text box and choose "get text" it keeps much of the formatting. Then you can fancy it up in Scribus or remove parts and such. That said, there's absolutely nothing wrong with how you demonstrated. always more than one way to do anything. :) I hope you consider doing more videos with Scribus and writing in general. I am going to check out the rest of your channel. Ne Sub here for sure.
@@1MKWilliams Thanks for answering, I did paperback covers now with Scribus (picture and text), then exported it as png picture (it gave 2 pictures because there were 2 pages, the front and back cover) with 300 pi resolution, and added different background colour to it on Gimp. They said at printhouse, that they can easily do the spine, I just need to say what text to put on the spine.
Inkscape would be better for cover design. Photoshop, GIMP, and Scribus are really not the right tools for covers. Especially if you use a lot of text. Inkscape is also free and really well designed.
would it be easier to make the First Line, No Indent the default? it seems like you spend more time switching it to that. it would be rare for the first line of a page to be a new indent and when you do, then switching that one would be best? maybe, idk.
I haven’t tried it yet, but, surely you don’t need to fill and flow the text page-by-page. Hopefully you can link the text frames and do all that once per chapter.
Thank you for the tutorial just a suggestion, make the story editor window a little bigger and you can change the styles all at once by wrapping the whole paragraph. I was feeling frustrated😀 due to this and had to find this out.
When you fill one page and it spills over it doesnt go onto the next page. So do you write the story somewhere else and paste it in or use scribus directly?
Dear M.K., I know you mentioned you are very busy with your baby so I apologize in advance for distributing you on Mother’s day. I was watching your tutorial on how to format your book with Scribus and noticed you had three additional document layouts that my new version of Scribus does not contain. The one I am interested in is the double sided, is that something you’re willing to share, have for sale, or possibly direct to download? I have searched the internet for something similar but have not had any luck finding a similar template. I know you mentioned something at the beginning about using a word document but could not make out the rest of what you where of where I could go to find it. In addition, I am also not to tech savvy at this moment when it comes to uploading templates on Scribus but I will be learning. I just realized I haven’t read any of the comments below yet, before writing all this, where I might find an answer but thank you for any advice or direction you might share. Happy Mother’s Day. Kevin
I self published my kids book a couple of years ago. I want to update it. When uploading the pdf the images were not uploading to Scribus. Please help!
Hi Roslyn, congratulations on your book. I have not done many images in the books I've formatted in Scribus. A few others who have commented on this video have more experience with image-heavy books. Perhaps they can help troubleshoot.
MK thank you again for your tutorials. I have downloaded Scribus version 1.5.8 and is Soooooo different than yours. Do you know anywhere there are tutorials for this version? I've exhausted my search.
Any other open source software in ubuntu for making magazine? I know indesign software is verrygood... But icant get in ubuntu. Any other free software in ubuntu?
Hi M. My name is Robert and I am from Norway. I want to make a booklet, and in the booklet there should be a table of contents and that's fine. The problem is that I can not make under lying points with indentation. I hope you understand what I mean. I also hope you can help me with this problem. I have searched online but without success. Hoping for a positive answer. Sincerely, Robert.
Hi. Very informative video thanks! I'm using Scribus 1.5.6.1 (It doesn't have the toolbar at the top of the page, and I don't know how to add it.) Any ideas?
Hmmm there is a really helpful forum for Scribus users that really helped me out when I was first using the program. There may already be a thread with the answer for you: forums.scribus.net/. Best of luck!
@@1MKWilliams I goofed! Its giving me the masterpage setup for the right but not the left! I set it up the way you did with both...strange. No page numbers on the left either. Now I dont know how to fix it
Got a question: wondering why my Scribus won't do insert page number. When I do the drop down menu, the insert character command where page number is found is greyed out. I've reinstalled. Both my Linux version and my Windows version are doing this. I've got Ghostscript. Any ideas?
@@1MKWilliams Hey, I found I can insert the page number using the Text Editor window. It works from there but not on the main ribbon menu. But thanks for your great video and prompt replies.
Question Ms. Williams. When the text goes over the limit, the last line runs to the end of the page ( I prefer that). However, when I delete the text that doesn't fit, Scribus condenses the last line. If I leave the text box with the extra text that doesn't show, is that a problem? Will Ingramspark care about this, or does it just have to have the proper dimensions and look good in the exported PDF format? Thank you so much for everything!
If you leave the extra text you get that red box at the end. I add a few spaces to get it to even out exactly so the text reaches the edge, but there is no red box. Best of luck!
Hi, I added a few pages and chose 'Apply Master Page' to all of them, which worked well, but now I can't access them in the same way as the others, i.e. I can not write on them or paste text into them. Is there a way to fix this ? Thank you.
Sometimes I can complete the justification of the last line on the page and sometimes I have to use the text editor box. Not sure the difference. And occasionally it will give me the little box with the X in it indicating that something more is there. If I can see the whole last word within the margins and no other lines are below it, will it mess anything up to just go ahead and leave it even though the X box is there? It's either that or leave the spaces at the end of the word so it's not justified. Not sure why it works on some pages and not on others.
@Mike in the movies hmm check that page when you export to PDF, if the X is still there you may need to go back in and remove a few spaces so it disappears.
@@1MKWilliams A user on the Scribus forums turned me on to this resource: write.flossmanuals.net/scribus/_draft/_v/1.0/introduction/ You can create your text frames and link them one to the other so your overflow automatically flows onto the next page without all the cutting and pasting you're doing in the video, just like InDesign works. FYI.
@@1MKWilliams You're welcome. Thanks for the video. Now you need to make a new one about linking text frames. Will save a lot of time over your current method.
Wow congrats on your progress. Are you creating this eBook as a PDF in Scribus or to be a ePub file that can be read on eReader apps like Kindle/Book/Kobo? If a PDF, I would take a note of each section/chapter page (I usually maintain a list as I am formatting and include that page at the beginning). If you are formatting for ePub then you will link section/chapter titles to a table of contents page with jump links for readers to easily go back to.
@@1MKWilliams Thank you for the reply. I finally found the solution. It turn out that scribus has this menu * is-annotation * is-bookmarks. So my problem is solved. I will make a scribus tutorial later after the book done.
I will make a scribus tutorial later after the book done. So far I have made Sozi tuutorial, and Impress tutorial. I have four blogs. They consists of about 600 articles. I use this blog to help people in telegram group learning web development, linux, and programming language as well. epsi-rns.gitlab.io/pages/archives/ The issue is, some young local people here, they cannot read english, and does not have a steady internt connection. So I decide to make book in local language.
How do you close the gap at the end of the page when the sentence is not all the way to the right? I've watched the video over and over but can't figure out what you're doing there. My little hand won't click like yours does :-)
Hi Cindy, When the text is right justified I there is a hard stop at the end of one page because the paragraph continues onto the next page I click on the text box (make sure it is highlighted with the red guides) and then I move my cursor to the end of the last work. I use the space bar to add to that line until it auto-adjusts. Usually this is only a few clicks over. If this doesn't work, go into the text editor box and add the spaces there, but then you will need to save and go back and make sure it added enough to the line. I hope this helps, best of luck with your book!
@@jienmacaraeg-guimare9737 1. Click anywhere in the overflowing text box. 2. Click "Item" on the menu bar. 3. Select "Link Text Frames"; an icon will appear that looks like two boxes. 4. Click that icon in the text box you want to flow to. Voila! (I'm using Scribus 1.4.8, the latest stable version.)
![How to Format Your Book With Atticus Book Formatting Software [2024 Version]](/img/n.gif)
You can check out more of my step-by-step self-publishing tutorials here: ua-cam.com/play/PL5wG4jOiELp2PemS-UxRI0Jzb6gMu8Etl.html
Hello before I watch your full video. Does your video include a tutorial on how to format an e-book through scribus?
@@betterdays29 No, print book only
@@1MKWilliams Thanks I almost watched the whole video. Wish you much blessings and success! :)
@@1MKWilliams do you have an E-book Tutorial?
what if double sided didn't pop up
It's probably been said already, but you can link text boxes. So you can have long sections of content flow continuously from page to page without cutting and pasting.
A brilliant brilliant tutorial and totally what we are now going off of as we begin - as totally the noobiest of the noobies - to format then print the first of what are already many books waiting to be (self) published.
Happy I could help!
Wow this was exactly what I was looking for. More advanced than I am now, but I plan on referencing this as I grow. Thank you!
You're welcome! Best of luck with your book
nice scribus intro Thank You
one good thing about scribus, you own your file and it's not in some cryptic proprietary format that only a commercial product can read and edit
Glad it was helpful!
Obrigado ❤ deve ser gratificante saber que uma pessoa do outro lado do mundo 🌎 esteja acompanhando seu trabalho! I'm from Brazil 🎉
Thanks for the tutorial, it was very useful and I will definitely implement some of the things you showed.
I noticed that you were manually cutting the overflow from one textbox into the next text box around the 50min mark. It is possible to link text boxes so that the overflow from one automatically goes into the next one (then link a third, fourth, so on). I saw it in another tutorial that I watched. If you link your text boxes, you should be able to copy and paste your whole chapter at once without manually editing each page's text box. Which I think would save you a large chunk of time.
The icon for linking text boxes is next to the Story Editor icon. Or keyboard shortcut "n".
I was wondering the same thing exactly, I would imagine that such a function must exist. Otherwise, can you imagine having to add a missing word on Page 1? You would have to reformat the whole book lol.
So, here's a new trick. I know you mentioned you did not like using the "Automatic Text Frames" option. But I just created a new document with this option for 150 pages and then used File->import->get text and the entire text came, flowing between the pages. This will give you all the text in linked text boxes on all the pages and save all the manual adding and linking pages. This is what I wanted to be able to do. I don't know how this works with importing styles, though, which the place option in other programs will do.
Very cool, thank you for sharing
@@1MKWilliams
I see what you mean by it going back to the top when you edit text. It considers the whole thing on big block of text. I found this compromise approach on the web:
"here's how i would import such extensive masses of text:
when you set up the file adjust the page margins to fit the area for the text,
tick the box for 'automatic text frames'. (scribus will create a text frame inside the margins on every document page. the frames are linked.)
generate your file (with as many pages as you like…)
unlink the frames where your first chapter begins
set the cursor in to the first frame of the first chapter
import this chapter
unlink the chain of text frames after this chapter.
follow with the second chapter in the next frame…"
Doing things by chapters would be a good compromise. I saw a video on InDesign that suggested separate projects by chapter. It is a bummer that the formats don't come in. It would be nice to have a tool specifically for book formatting. I guess that's Vellum but only for the Mac...
@19:47 at this point you could save this as a Master in your own files and have it for every book! Front matter and back matter- I think that’s terms they use …. Have different formatting so I see why you’ll save sections differently. Good tutorial
Happy it is helping!
@@1MKWilliamsThis is not straight forward as it seems. I cannot load Scribus to my computer…. Servers….Firewalls…Proxies…I gunna lose my mind. I do not speak this language. It’s a tech issue and I might not be able to understand any directions. Oddly, I didn’t get the page you show for Scribus, I have a ‘log in page’ but I didn’t create an account nor did you give us instructions to.
FYI - you don't need to open the text editor for everything. You can do basic editing by docking the properties window to the side of the main window. You can save a LOT of time by dropping down the windows menu and docking the properties, layers, alignment and text properties to be always visible.
Good to know, thank you for the tip!
Paul, I downloaded version 1.538 & is very different from MK's. She was kind to answer my questions. Do you know of any tutorials for version 1.5.8? What version is MK using?
@@fredberri7225 Looked like 1.3.8
Thank you dear friend . It helps me to make a book. Thank you very much
You're welcome! I'm glad this tutorial helped.
Glad to have found you, dear. Thank you very much for your time and generosity for sharing your invaluable knowledge in such a comprehensive presentation. It means a lot to me and hopefully to millions others. I loved it! BRAVO!
You are so welcome!
I love how you explained it. this was very educational
Thank you!
Many thanks for this tutorial, madame. It's clear, complete and simple. Great work and extremely useful!
You're welcome! Glad the tutorial was helpful!
I downloaded Scribus a couple of days ago to my Lenovo IdeaPad, so I thank you for uploading this video! I've subscribed to your channel.
Thank you for subscribing! I'm glad this video can help you 😊
7/15/2024 - I am 75% done with your tutorial, and I’m here to tell you that everything you’ve done I do with WordPerfect X6. I write chapters as separate files, and then use WordPerfect master document generation to link all the files into one file.
This is a really good video. I needed to know how to use Scribus at a basic level since I've never used it or any other desktop publishing software. This worked very well for me. Thank you!!
Happy to help!
I just downloaded Scribus and am very thankful for your efforts on this video! Just checked though and found that when you have overflow text you can click on that little x to flow text to a new text frame. Like in InDesign.
Thank you!
With details and feelings. One of few wonderful videos, I ever saw. Thanks
So nicely explained, with details and feelings. One of few wonderful videos, I evers saw. Thanks
MK, Awesome. Thank you. Your videos are the best. Unfortunately, I was following along and BAM! things changed. You explain it well and i appreciate what I did listen to & learned.
Thanks for this awesome informative video for senior authors like me.
Happy to help!
Thanks!
Thank you so much 🥰
You just saved my life! Thank you so much!!
You're welcome!
Thank you so much for the tutorial. It really helpful. Very good video.
You're welcome!
Thank you. Your content warrants advertising. Very detailed and informative.
Thank you, glad you found it helpful!
Ghostscript is only needed if you want to use the Scribus print preview function or if you are using EPS images that have to be rendered, both of which you’re apparently don’t use, so the error ,message can be ignored.
Good to know, thank you for clarifying!
Peace and Blessings to you and yours M.K. Williams on this special occasion and time you are in. Once ready I would be honored to be assisted by you. Blessings
Thank you so much! Happy to help!
M.K. Williams you’re welcome and appreciated!
My ocd going in overdrive with the formatting tweaking in this video 😆 but an excellent tutorial overall. Learnt a lot from this video and it's definitely going to remain on my saved videos. Feeling like I'm going to reference certain TSs a lot
Happy I can help
you are so amazing, jesus christ, thank you so much for demystifying this stuff
This is a great tutorial. Thank you so much!
You're welcome!
You can link the text boxes from page to page so the text flows between them and you don't have to manually figure out the break points on each page.
1) select the page with too much text.
2) go to item->Link text
3) click the text box with too much text and drag an arrow the text box on the next page.
This trick should make things much easier and making edits much easier. The text will flow between the text boxes with any changes you make.
Thank you for the tip!
I was wondering about this. Seemed very impractical to be copying and pasting a book over page by page (or more likely, part of page by part of page).
@Darren D. MacDonald
I would recommend doing this by chapter
With very long sections of text editing becomes tricky
You can also just go to File-> Import (or Place, I'm not quite sure) and just have it import your whole text, already split into pages.
Though I admire your mental strength to do it by hand. I would have crumpled and died after only fivxe pages or so...
Very helpful video
thank you so much for sharing
you are awesome
You are welcome
Perfect teachings. Thank you.
You're welcome!
Thank you for this tutorial! Very helpful with me getting started with Scribis. I tried to learn the program myself since I just need it for a short story to insert into something else but it just wasn’t working out and ugly lol
I'm glad this tutorial helped you. Best of luck getting your short story out!!
Scribus probably isn't the right tool for a short story. Libre Office Writer or AbiWord might be.
Scribus is much more powerful if you need to layout mutiple pages differently, or have lots of images and captions.
Super tutorials. Very understandable. I am not sure how to import my files from the desktop (JPG Graphic Novel pages) into Scribus. Seems simple but I didn't figure it out.
Hi Norm, I'm glad you found this video helpful. Regarding importing images, you first need to add the image frame on the page where you would like the image to display. Once you had the frame on the page and it is selected you can go to file > import > get image and you will see options to import images that are on your local computer. Best of luck!
Excellent Video!
Thank you!
This is so helpful, thank you!! :D
You're welcome!
thank you for this tutorial.
You're welcome!
What an excellent video. Thank you so much.
Glad it was helpful!
I loved it.. Great job
Thank you!
Hi Mary! Thank you so much for this very helpful video :-) I just finished my first book (for children) and I used indesign. For the second book I´d like to take scribus, as it is free. As the book is for children, I also added many coloured pictures to the text. As I´d like to know where I am with my pages and spaces for the pictures, I thaught it might be a good idea to write the text directly into scribus. Do you think this is a good idea? I thaugth it might save a lot of time to use this program from the beginning and just add the pictures whenever they are finished? What do you think?
I'd suggest having the edited and proofed text in a master doc. Put some text in as a placeholder maybe but always cross reference against the final text
So helpful, thank you!
You're welcome!
Finished everything but the cover today- this tutorial was so helpful. Thanks again. I wonder if those automatic text frames would work better for me - surely there's a better way than to copy and paste each page? I feel like there should be. Next time I'll try it!
Yes, another viewer on this video posted some tips about the text boxes as well, that might help!
When you export to pdf, can you create this file as a single-page format (1-up per page)? Looks like that's what Lightning Source wants. Thanks
Yes that is in the export settings, that is how I do mine every time
Thanks!
Thanks for this video.I'm a little envious of your ability to move around the text so well. Do you think I would be able to have at he end endnotes, then References, then Index, then About the author using Scribus as I am unable to do this on KGP templates or Kindle Create?
Hi Graham, Yes you can add each of those sections to your book with Scribus.
@@1MKWilliams Thanks. I think I'll try it.
Thank you very much. Big help.
Question: is it friendly for RTL texts? Hebrew Arabic? Should I set "left page"? This is the answer?
Yes, you can also do the RTL texts, when you upload to publish you will select that option as well
@@1MKWilliams I hope you will find time to help. I want to import ms doc file with 300 pages. I prepared 300 pages.
1) do I need to insert 300 text frames? One text frame for each page, manually?
2) when I import, what I should do so my file will fill all the frames and pages?
I hope you help me
Thank you very much for this excellent video, M.K. Williams. I'm a beginner and you helped me a lot. Do you know if there's any way to import footnotes (not endnotes) from a Word/LibreOffice document? It'd be rather tedious to move them one by one if they are many.
That's a great question! I actually have not had to tackle footnotes in Scribus to date, sorry. But a lot of really savvy Scribus users have commented on this video, maybe they can help. Best of luck!
@@1MKWilliams Okay, thank you! It's lovely that you respond to comments and incite conversation.
This is cool, but I'm a bit OCD and can't just eyeball things the way you do. Is there a way to make text boxes snapped to a grid?
Yes, there are grid lines at the top to guide you.
Thank you!!
You're welcome!
Hey I’m really glad I found your page it is exactly what I need to help me through the process. I was wondering if you would be able to help me with something ( I remember you said that you can take on jobs I’m not sure which Video) so I would really appreciate if you can respond. Thank you so much and I appreciate all the work you do, really. Thank you.
I'm actually no longer taking on clients at the moment. If you need help with formatting I can recommend: 100Covers: 100covers.com/?ref=49
Can you add text over an image wit Scribus. For example I have a full page image in the background on the page before a chapter beginning and I want to add a quote on top of it.
I have not tried this but I believe you should be able to have a text box over the image box
Could I use this software to print off the pages to make handmade perfect bound photography books?
I don't see why not
@1MKWilliams thank you for replying.
What print services do you suggest?
I use print on demand with KDP and IngramSpark
Very helpful video! How do I flatten my pdf document as it keeps getting rejected when I upload it to the printing website! (I am creating a planner)
Hmmm, I'm not sure about flattening it persay, however when I go to export the document to PDF, I click over to the "color" tab and select "printer" as the quality and it has always worked for me to have it accepted for printing. I'm not a graphic design expert, but thankfully many more savvy people than me have been commenting on this video and they may be able to confirm or correct me.
Life Saver
Happy to help!
Thanks so much! Do you know a remedy for Scribus producing a 2Gb PDF file for a 132 pages book with black and white drawings? Something inside tells me that this size is not justified, not even with higher resolution images…
Hi, I'm not sure. Have you tried the scribus forums?
@@1MKWilliams thanks for the idea, I will! By the way, I’m curious would a typical PDF you may upload to KDP be of many a Mb s?
So, I will be purchasing my ISBNs soon and was wondering about the bar codes that Bowker also sells. Should I get a bar code for my book as well? How necessary is it? And, if I do buy one, who puts the barcode on the book, the book cover designer or the publishing platform (KDP, B&N Press, etc...)?
Hi Josie, great questions. Whether you purchase a barcode or not will really depend on your strategy. Barcodes are only needed for printed books (so if you do ebook only no need to purchase). You'll also need to decide if you will try to get the book into brick and mortar retailers. If that is you plan you'll want to purchase a barcode with the price listed and have the cover designer include it for you. If you don't plan to get the book into stores then you can go with the free no price listed barcode provided by KDP or Ingram Spark. I have a video that goes into more detail on the topic as well: ua-cam.com/video/zfbxXp4lSg4/v-deo.html best of luck!
MK Williams Thank you so much for providing that insight. I am new to this whole self-publishing world and need all the help that I can get. I highly appreciate your videos as well, I have been watching them like crazy, lol.
So glad I can help! Let me know if you have any specific questions for your book. I also do 1 on 1 consulting sessions to help first time authors navigate all those tiny decisions they need to make for the book. mailchi.mp/6631be0c687a/selfpublishingservices
Hi M.K, in which video have you show how to build Table of Content with Scribus?
I think I may have forgotten to include it in this video (it was already so long). What I do is keep a pad of paper next to me as I work in Scribus and write down the page number of each new chapter. Once the formatting is complete I go back to the front of the book and add the chapter titles and the page numbers. I don't use any automatic features for this in Scribus.
@@1MKWilliams InDesign has a TOC Generator based on Heading styles and will automatically generate the TOC along with it's corresponding page numbers. I usually create extremely large documents for my job. Usually use FrameMaker or InDesign and they both generate autotically. So I am guessing Scribus can do the same. I will need to find how to do this. Doing the notepad method would be too much work for me especially when others tend to keep adding last minute changes and pages can shift.
M.K. thank you for this video tutorial. Thus far you are the best and so is Scribus. I've tried a few others I returned for refunds. They were too convoluted. This is a multiple time trying with little frustration. You are doing a great job. Maybe you can answer a few things: 1) I can't make the program larger to see better. 2) I can't go back ion the program because I made an error following you. 3) sometimes you click and I can't see where. 4) I reached interring my title page but that's the only page I have on the screen vs your multiple pages on your screen. I really need to have this program work for me. Can you help? fred.
Hi Fred, it would be tough to troubleshoot without looking at your screen. There are very active scribus support message boards that may be more helpful in that regard. Best of luck!
@@1MKWilliams Thank you, M.K. for taking the time to reply. I guess I will have to search Where I would I find such Scribus support message boards?
Do you know what format is best for amazon publishing? thank you.
Hi Julia, I'm not sure of your question. Do you mean the file type needed for print or eBook publishing?
@@1MKWilliams the file type for physical book publishing ☺️
@@allil87 You would need to have a print-ready PDF for that.
Very helpful. Can someone tell me how to insert an illustration onto a book page? What are the steps? I use a laptop. Many thanks!
8 years ago I spent $3000 to self-publish my first book. The process was not fun plus I don’t want to pay that much for my next several books. So I tried Fivver, spent $300 for editing, formatting and book cover for 35 pages ….. it was CRAP 💩and the book cover design completely laughable. I am now very motivated to diy and hope this software is the ticket.
Oh no! I'm so sorry to hear about the troubles you've had. Best of luck with the next book!! Services like 100Covers are reputable, know self publishing, and have fairly reasonable prices. May be worth investigating too: 100covers.com/?ref=49
Thank you!
You're welcome!
Thumbs up for pronouncing Scribus correctly.
Haha! Thank you!
Thank you.
You're welcome!
I think you can import some of the styles like font size, bold, italics on newer versions. Probably on the same version you're using. I use 1.4.8. I am little worried about updating the software and I am not fully into Scribus yet. The video was very helpful. Thank you :)
Good to know about importing more styles, there is so much to learn about this program and I know I've only scratched the surface. I'm glad you found this video helpful!
I have another question... IngramSpark talks about rejection if the fonts are not embedded in the PDF. Is there an extra step to do that or will the fonts be embedded when you export the PDF as you explained?
Hi Cindy, I have never had an issue with the fonts and submitting to IngramSpark while I have used Scribus to format. I also stick with standard fonts (Garamond, Arial, Times New Roman, etc.)
@@1MKWilliams Thank you! Submitting mine today with fingers crossed.
@@cindyhorrellramsey2845 🤞🤞🤞
Hello, the current version of Scribus (Version 1.6.0) only offers Single and Facing pages as Layouts. Is the latter the same as Double sided. There is also no 3 fold or 4 fold either - I guess it's all in the Templates right? Thanks!
Interesting, when you go to export you need them to be exported as single pages
Sure. @@1MKWilliams
I want to ask. How to make cover book that has different size in width. Should i make it separately or in one worksheet?
Yes, the cover file should be separate from the interior file. Best of luck with your book!
@@1MKWilliams ah thank you so much for your reply
How can i give hyperlink in this scribus
Hello, I use scribus for print formatting, so no hyperlinks in the document.
Ok
Just started watching this and I didn't want to forget. when you are moving text boxes or whatever element into place. You can go to the Page option on the menu and select "snap to grid" and this will save you some fiddling. :D
Also, rather than copy and pasting your text, why not right click the text box in Scribus and select "get text" then select your word document?
at the 50 minute mark, why not link the text boxes so that the text flows?
Hi Raven, All excellent points and I'm glad you posted those here for others to see. The very first time I used Scribus I used an autopopulate function but did it wrong and it was a nightmare so I do it the "manual" way now. It takes longer but I haven't cussed at my computer lol
@@1MKWilliams oh my.. those auto text boxes can really mess things up. I used your tutorial to create myself a template. I found that if I write in LiberOffice, and then in Scribus click my text box and choose "get text" it keeps much of the formatting. Then you can fancy it up in Scribus or remove parts and such.
That said, there's absolutely nothing wrong with how you demonstrated. always more than one way to do anything. :) I hope you consider doing more videos with Scribus and writing in general. I am going to check out the rest of your channel. Ne Sub here for sure.
Is it possible also to do book cover on Scribus? The problem seems to be the spine, how to add it?
Hi Rajan, I have never used Scribus to do any type of cover design so I'm not sure about that possibility. I use Photoshop for my cover designs.
@@1MKWilliams Thanks for answering, I did paperback covers now with Scribus (picture and text), then exported it as png picture (it gave 2 pictures because there were 2 pages, the front and back cover) with 300 pi resolution, and added different background colour to it on Gimp. They said at printhouse, that they can easily do the spine, I just need to say what text to put on the spine.
Inkscape would be better for cover design. Photoshop, GIMP, and Scribus are really not the right tools for covers. Especially if you use a lot of text. Inkscape is also free and really well designed.
would it be easier to make the First Line, No Indent the default? it seems like you spend more time switching it to that. it would be rare for the first line of a page to be a new indent and when you do, then switching that one would be best? maybe, idk.
I could, that could be a potential solution.
@@1MKWilliams after actually pasting a few pages into the program, i have noticed that your method is actually better lol.
Thank you soo much
You're welcome!
I haven’t tried it yet, but, surely you don’t need to fill and flow the text page-by-page. Hopefully you can link the text frames and do all that once per chapter.
This „thing“ at the bottom right of a text box marks overflow. Just click it to place a LINKED text box (!) 🎉
Thank you for the tutorial just a suggestion, make the story editor window a little bigger and you can change the styles all at once by wrapping the whole paragraph. I was feeling frustrated😀 due to this and had to find this out.
Thanks for the tip
@@1MKWilliams thank you for introducing me to scribus, moved from indesign to scribus. Loving it.
@@GeorgyMM That's awesome!!
When you fill one page and it spills over it doesnt go onto the next page. So do you write the story somewhere else and paste it in or use scribus directly?
Correct. There was a way to do this but it was being difficult so I did it the hard way
@@1MKWilliams I getcha
Thank you
You're welcome
Dear M.K.,
I know you mentioned you are very busy with your baby so I apologize in advance for distributing you on Mother’s day. I was watching your tutorial on how to format your book with Scribus and noticed you had three additional document layouts that my new version of Scribus does not contain. The one I am interested in is the double sided, is that something you’re willing to share, have for sale, or possibly direct to download? I have searched the internet for something similar but have not had any luck finding a similar template. I know you mentioned something at the beginning about using a word document but could not make out the rest of what you where of where I could go to find it. In addition, I am also not to tech savvy at this moment when it comes to uploading templates on Scribus but I will be learning. I just realized I haven’t read any of the comments below yet, before writing all this, where I might find an answer but thank you for any advice or direction you might share.
Happy Mother’s Day.
Kevin
Sorry to hear that. Not sure what their new versions have or don't have. Best of luck
I self published my kids book a couple of years ago. I want to update it. When uploading the pdf the images were not uploading to Scribus. Please help!
Hi Roslyn, congratulations on your book. I have not done many images in the books I've formatted in Scribus. A few others who have commented on this video have more experience with image-heavy books. Perhaps they can help troubleshoot.
MK thank you again for your tutorials. I have downloaded Scribus version 1.5.8 and is Soooooo different than yours. Do you know anywhere there are tutorials for this version? I've exhausted my search.
Hi Fred, No, I'm not familiar with that version or any tutorials for it. If I find any I will let you know.
Can i make a magazine in scribus software}?
I believe so. I haven't tried it but that is one of the preset options. Best of luck with your magazine!
Yes you can, in fact on the scribus website they have information about a company that does just that.
Any other open source software in ubuntu for making magazine?
I know indesign software is verrygood...
But icant get in ubuntu.
Any other free software in ubuntu?
@@1MKWilliams Thankyou
@@dthoughts1666 what's wrong with Scribus?
Hi M.
My name is Robert and I am from Norway. I want to make a booklet, and in the booklet there should be a table of contents and that's fine. The problem is that I can not make under lying points with indentation. I hope you understand what I mean. I also hope you can help me with this problem. I have searched online but without success.
Hoping for a positive answer.
Sincerely, Robert.
Hi. Very informative video thanks! I'm using Scribus 1.5.6.1 (It doesn't have the toolbar at the top of the page, and I don't know how to add it.) Any ideas?
Hmmm there is a really helpful forum for Scribus users that really helped me out when I was first using the program. There may already be a thread with the answer for you: forums.scribus.net/. Best of luck!
Can anyone suggest how to add equations in the text editor after i directly copy it from a docx or pdf document... Without using Latex
So do you have to keep changing the garamond font each time you add in new pages? or is there a way to set the font for all pages
Yes, I did eventually discover a better way to do it via templates. But yeah, it was a miserable trial and error
@@1MKWilliams I goofed! Its giving me the masterpage setup for the right but not the left! I set it up the way you did with both...strange. No page numbers on the left either. Now I dont know how to fix it
Got a question: wondering why my Scribus won't do insert page number. When I do the drop down menu, the insert character command where page number is found is greyed out. I've reinstalled. Both my Linux version and my Windows version are doing this. I've got Ghostscript. Any ideas?
Hmmm I haven't run into that issue, I don't have Ghostscript though so perhaps that is the key difference.
@@1MKWilliams Hum. How are you exporting your pdf without Ghostscript?
@@93SFBG file - export - export as pdf. Haven't had any issues.
@@1MKWilliams Hey, I found I can insert the page number using the Text Editor window. It works from there but not on the main ribbon menu. But thanks for your great video and prompt replies.
@@93SFBG Excellent!! Glad you found a solution!
Question Ms. Williams. When the text goes over the limit, the last line runs to the end of the page ( I prefer that). However, when I delete the text that doesn't fit, Scribus condenses the last line. If I leave the text box with the extra text that doesn't show, is that a problem? Will Ingramspark care about this, or does it just have to have the proper dimensions and look good in the exported PDF format? Thank you so much for everything!
If you leave the extra text you get that red box at the end. I add a few spaces to get it to even out exactly so the text reaches the edge, but there is no red box. Best of luck!
@@1MKWilliams Awesome! Thank you.
Thanks M.K¡¡
Hi, I added a few pages and chose 'Apply Master Page' to all of them, which worked well, but now I can't access them in the same way as the others, i.e. I can not write on them or paste text into them. Is there a way to fix this ? Thank you.
I noticed that adding a text frame to one of the new pages solved my immediate problem, but I wish there'd be a more automated way to fix this.
Hi George, Glad you found a fix. You can create a master page that has a text frame in it already. Best of luck!
@@1MKWilliams Thank you, I'll start over.
Sometimes I can complete the justification of the last line on the page and sometimes I have to use the text editor box. Not sure the difference. And occasionally it will give me the little box with the X in it indicating that something more is there. If I can see the whole last word within the margins and no other lines are below it, will it mess anything up to just go ahead and leave it even though the X box is there? It's either that or leave the spaces at the end of the word so it's not justified. Not sure why it works on some pages and not on others.
The red x means that there is an extra blank line below, ideally you want all of those cleared out.
@Mike in the movies hmm check that page when you export to PDF, if the X is still there you may need to go back in and remove a few spaces so it disappears.
Have you found a way to adjust the space the program puts in between lines of text? Seems like its double spacing and I want it tighter than that.
That should be under the settings when you are going in and adjusting character and paragraph master settings.
@@1MKWilliams A user on the Scribus forums turned me on to this resource: write.flossmanuals.net/scribus/_draft/_v/1.0/introduction/ You can create your text frames and link them one to the other so your overflow automatically flows onto the next page without all the cutting and pasting you're doing in the video, just like InDesign works. FYI.
@@93SFBG YAAASSS!!! Win!! Definitely going to check this out, thank you!
@@1MKWilliams You're welcome. Thanks for the video. Now you need to make a new one about linking text frames. Will save a lot of time over your current method.
I have already made 110 pages of a free e-book.
How do I, make TOC/bookmarks/outline in PDF?
Wow congrats on your progress. Are you creating this eBook as a PDF in Scribus or to be a ePub file that can be read on eReader apps like Kindle/Book/Kobo? If a PDF, I would take a note of each section/chapter page (I usually maintain a list as I am formatting and include that page at the beginning). If you are formatting for ePub then you will link section/chapter titles to a table of contents page with jump links for readers to easily go back to.
@@1MKWilliams
Thank you for the reply.
I finally found the solution. It turn out that scribus has this menu
* is-annotation
* is-bookmarks.
So my problem is solved.
I will make a scribus tutorial later after the book done.
I will make a scribus tutorial later after the book done. So far I have made Sozi tuutorial, and Impress tutorial. I have four blogs. They consists of about 600 articles. I use this blog to help people in telegram group learning web development, linux, and programming language as well.
epsi-rns.gitlab.io/pages/archives/
The issue is, some young local people here, they cannot read english, and does not have a steady internt connection. So I decide to make book in local language.
@@1MKWilliams
Export to PDF.
Thank you for reply.
How do you close the gap at the end of the page when the sentence is not all the way to the right? I've watched the video over and over but can't figure out what you're doing there. My little hand won't click like yours does :-)
Hi Cindy, When the text is right justified I there is a hard stop at the end of one page because the paragraph continues onto the next page I click on the text box (make sure it is highlighted with the red guides) and then I move my cursor to the end of the last work. I use the space bar to add to that line until it auto-adjusts. Usually this is only a few clicks over. If this doesn't work, go into the text editor box and add the spaces there, but then you will need to save and go back and make sure it added enough to the line. I hope this helps, best of luck with your book!
@@1MKWilliams Had to do it in the text editor box, but it worked. Thank you!
Thanks a lot.
From México.
One question: why don't you use the "link Text Frames"?
I tried it once and it didn't work for me
If you link the pages the text will automaticly go over to the next page... So you don't need to erase and copy over to the next page.
Thank you for the tip! I'll try that next time ☺️
How to link pages?
@@jienmacaraeg-guimare9737 just watch a video on youtube or google how to link pages in Scribus. Someone somewhere already put the answer out there.
@@jienmacaraeg-guimare9737 1. Click anywhere in the overflowing text box. 2. Click "Item" on the menu bar. 3. Select "Link Text Frames"; an icon will appear that looks like two boxes. 4. Click that icon in the text box you want to flow to. Voila! (I'm using Scribus 1.4.8, the latest stable version.)
I broke down and got Vellum. Never looked back.
hmm there is no "double sided" option for me. I have version 1.5.8 for mac
How can I reach out to yiy