Empty Verse number

Question

We are using English versification in our project in which some verses are omitted. We also costimized versification by use custom.vrs file (adding e.g. -MAT 17:21 -MAT 18:11) and do not receive errors after runing "Run Basic Checkes". But we want verse number in the text and text in the footnote. So, custom.vrs file is not useful in our case.

Is there any way to have verse number while verse is still empty and text of the verse in the footnote. I tried to use non-breakable space (U200C) and then creating footnote on that, which worked well but it has other issues too.

Answer 1

It sounds like your question probably has to do with printing or app development--i.e. the output from Paratext. Is that correct?

If so, it might be better to ask on a forum that supports whatever tool you are using to create the final product. Here are the two options I can think of, but maybe you're using something else.

PTXprint: https://community.scripture.software.sil.org/c/ptxprint

Scripture App Builder: https://community.scripture.software.sil.org/c/sab

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To start to answer your question, using U200C was a good idea and was probably my first thought in a similar situation. The problem is that it's still defined by Unicode as a space, as thus still follows the same rules (i.e. skip verses with only blank space in them).

One thing I've done... in the post-Paratext publishing environment... is to add my own codes. Something like \v 11 \zblank i\zblank*. Then I define the \zblank code so that it's invisible--usually white so it matches the background text. The "i" is just a real letter place holder which is narrow, but which keeps the verse from being blank.

Comments

Dear mnJames,

Thank you for quick response. I know that PTXprint and SAB deal with such issues but we need to archive the project (only one book actaully) to archive in the DBL. We are facing some issues in Schema checking. I hope you know that the DBL won't accept any project with Schema errors. Other errors are fine we are dealing with them but this empty verse error is still a problem.

We want verse number for Empty verse but not the text, instead text must be in the footnote. See below for example:

Answer 2

You could use \va 21\va* to put a verse number, that is not counted as a real verse and than add the footnote. So, this would be part of e.g. MAT 17:20. The custom.vrs file would still need -MAT 17:21.

Official USFM documentation on \va ...\va*

Answer 3

Hi Sajid

Once a "custom verse" is accepted by Paratext because of the custom.vrs, it will be treated like any other "standard verse", like adding footnotes to them.

I understand your question is whether you can have an empty verse containing a footnote and the answer is yes. In this case the callout will be placed next to the verse number. When you enter biblical text in it you must be careful under which word to leave the callout.

As an example, you can see in the image I have added the verse MAT 18:36, which has no text but has a footnote and does not give a verification error:

If it's not working for you, could you share a little more information about where it's sending you the error messages?

Saludos,
Pepe.

Answer 4

When you modify the custom.vrs file to say that a verse does not exist, the verse number should not exist in the text. Since you want to include the verse numbers (with a footnote) then you should not remove those verses from the custom.vrs file.

As Pepe notes below this should pass the checks (including the Schema check).