Need advice on an application for creating a Newsletter

[Srot BULL]

Jeremy C. Reed wrote:
> On Thu, 22 Jul 2004, Srot BULL wrote:
> 
> 
>>Now here is my problem, I have been incharge (on/off) for the
>>publication of our Newsletter (we call it Bulletin Board), I have had
>>experiences on Adobe's expensive applications...Photoshop and
>>PageMaker...What would be the best way (application in the ports) for me
>>to start with...? I have tried Scribus from the ports but, it is like
>>using PageMaker with a Distiller inside, please do not get me wrong I
>>have nothing against Scribus...I just want to learn new ideas...
>>Besides, the publication only have 4 pages with 2-4 images per
>>page...and I will have to print some copies and email some (text) and
>>maybe upload in our website.
>>I have search the internet...DocBook, XML...(did not have the courage to
>>read all because, there were just too many and I still do not know if I
>>am in the right track...
>>I was thinking of using Vim as my editor (close to vi, would really help
>>me learn both)...but after that, I do not know what to do next...
>>Anybody using FreeBSD for small DTP here?  Mine is just 4 pages...If you
>>could reply with some links where to start?  Would be a big help for
>>me...I hope I have not wasted your time with this long posting...
> 
> 
> Depends on how you want your newsletter to look.
Well, I would want it to look as simple as possible, The cover page 
would contain some logos, images, 1-2 main articles, and the rest of the 
pages would look like colored newspapers...I hope your getting this...
> 
> kword is a lot easier and faster for generating a simple newsletter than
> scribus. Like scribus, it supports the concept of having text frames which
> can be resized and moved and linking the text together.
> 
> Tools like inkscape, sodipodi, xfig, sketch, kontour, and tgif are not
> useful for desktop publishing for newsletters because you can't easily
> enter text with frames that can be resized while having text flow
> automatically between text frames. (A common problem is resizing the text
> frame also squishes/stretches the text.) It is possible that some of these
> vector editors now have improved text frame support; please let me know.

Back when I was using KDE, I did tried to use koffice for a while but 
due to lack of knowlegde in how to make things work (specially japanese 
input, in a totally english environment)...I had to give it up...koffice 
was just too slow and kept on hanging... AbiWord and Gnumeric handled 
japanese input pretty normaly...o.k. this is just me, a newbie trying to 
share my experience...I knew kword could handle test frames or it was 
designed for text frames...but my configuration was just poor that I had 
to abandon it...

> Another alternative is lyx. But doing newsletter-style layout can be very
> difficult. (Formatting a brochure in lyx using latex took me days but only
> minutes in scribus.) I do use lyx to generate reports, courseware,
> and book-type material.

I should definitely take a look at this one...

> 
> Another alternative to look at is passepartout.

and this one too...

> At one time, I was looking for a mailing list that focused on open source
> desktop layout publishing. Does anyone know of a good one?
> 
Anyone who could share as some links would be a great help...
Thank you very much for your ideas...
At least I can start somewhere...

Srot BULL