PTXPrint strips out ~

Question

We use the ~ symbol inside square brackets to show alternatives in our translation drafts; e.g., [existing draft ~ alternative]. When I use PTXPrint to prepare a draft for the translators, all ~ symbols are stripped out of the PDF… Is there any way to retain ~ in the text?

Answer 1

Hi @PaulUnger,
Unfortunately the ~ symbol carries special meaning within the USFM standard and therefore we use it as prescribed here: Words and Characters — Unified Standard Format Markers 3.0.0 documentation

I would recommend switching to a different character such as a forward slash ‘/’ or something else which doesn’t carry meaning.

I’m guessing it would be easy enough to place a rule in the changes.txt file (as seen below, and accessible on the Advanced tab) to do this for you so that you don’t need to change your USFM just yet; but longer term, I would encourage you to use some other character, otherwise you may trip up other software later down the track (DBL etc).

'~' > '/'

Comments

Thanks for that info, @mjpenny. Just my luck… I’ll consider what to change to and move forward. There shouldn’t be any instances of ~ in the text when a book is complete, as it is only intended to mark alternatives during the revision stages. But probably easiest to make the change now and avoid issues down the road.