Is it possible to transfer notes a person made in a Pt 7.5 resource to the Pt 8 version of the resource

Question

I have a user who is considering moving from Paratext 7.5 to 8 and she has a question about how to get the notes that she made in the 7.5 version of a resource associated with the 8 version of the resource.

Can we move notes from the 7.5 version of the resource to the 8 version of the resource?
This is the text of her email
"
i was wondering if there’s a simple way around this- the most important and only thing i want to transfer from Ptx7 to 8 is my notes on the NET translation. I found the ‘copy all Notes’ function but, at least when pasting into Word, doesn’t carry non-Roman Script like Chinese or Greek. Thankfully, it does maintain formatting- like new paragraphs and bold, which Ptx doesn’t always copy within the program"

Thank you,
MSEAIT/LT

Answer 1

You are asking about consultant notes project. You can read about them in Help. She would have had to create a consultant notes project to put notes in a resource like the NET. A consultant notes project can be migrated to Paratext 8.
In Paratext go to Open File/resource. Make sure “show Paratext 7 projects” is checked. Select the consultant notes project. When you open it the migration process will be initiated. In my screenshot my consultant notes project is called CNMT.

migrating_a_consultant_notes_project.png753×521 136 KB

The consultant notes project will then be available in Paratext 8.

Comments

Thank you anon044949 for taking the time to reply. I have not seen exactly
what this user is referring to but I do not think it is consultant
notes. In Paratext 7.5 I can open the NIV84 resource and add a note to
it. I think this is the capability that the user has used with the
Paratext 7.5 .Net resource. I’ll confirm it, but I think the user is
asking how to go about getting the notes that were attached to a 7.5
resource attached to the 8.0 version of that same resource
(acknowledging that .Net is not yet available in Paratext 8…as far as
I know).

MSEAIT/LT

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In Paratext 7, you could write some files related to resources.

In Paratext 8, resources are implemented in a new way so that the resource
is entirely self-contained and can’t be modified - including adding notes.

So, anon044949’s suggestion about a Consultant Notes project would be the way to
make notes on a resource. Once the project is created, the existing notes
file could be copied from Paratext 7 to the Paraetxt 8 Consultant Notes
project.

There is an option on the View menu to select the Consultant Notes projects
that you want to have displayed when editing a text or you could use the
Notes window.

John+Wickberg
Paratext Support

Answer 2

Just to clarify what John+Wickberg is saying (I think)

1. In PT7 create a new project that is a “Consultants Notes” project
2. Copy the file(s) named “Comments_Name.xml” from the resource folder to the folder for the new Consultant Notes project
3. When you open the Consultant Notes project all of the notes should now be present
4. Migrate the Consultants Notes project to PT8

Note (1) PT7 and PT8 have slightly different names for comments so if you copy the comments file from PT7 to PT8 you would need to change the name. In PT8 the file is called “Notes_Name.xml”, I would recommend creating the project in 7 and migrating.

Note (2) If you have added new note tags in the original notes you would need to make sure you also copy the CommentTags.xml file.

Comments

Good job anon848905.

Re Note (1): Besides different file names, the notes in 8 and in 7 have some different XML markers as well, so I think migrating the notes project from 7 is necessary.

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Thank you anon848905 for working out how to do this. I tried copying the xml file but some how it did not accept the new file and I did not have time to work on it more. I was afraid that a consultant note project was just too different somehow.

Answer 3

Thank you anon044949, anon848905 and sewhite, to repeat what I hear you saying.
We can no longer make notes in resources, but we can get similar functionality by making a consultant note project. We can also use the process anon848905 outlined to take notes out of a 7.5 resource and put them in a 7.5 Consultant notes project, and then migrate that project up to 8.
Thank you again.

Comments

I have not known many consultants who put notes in resources in Paratext 7. I have heard of a few consultants who take advantage of the ability to put notes and highlighting in published Bibles in Translator’s Workplace. In the Folio Views version you create a shadow file and all of the notes and highlighting is placed in what is effectively a copy of the resource. I would encourage consultants and exegetes who want to comment on a resource to do it in the Logos. All the resources of Translator’s Workplace are now in Logos and it allows all manor of notes, highlights, and underlining. The notes can be made into “community notes” and shared with others. We want to encourage more people to take advantage of the powerful features of Logos now that we have them available. Below is a video from Logo’s website on making notes in one resource and even seeing them in other resources if needed.

Notes