Inserting text into paratext using cut and paste

Question

I recently added a new book (Psalms) first without verse markers and then did a remove book because I wanted verse markers in the text. I then began cutting and pasting psalms from a word document and adding it into paratext and changing all the verse markers. Something I did has slowed paratext way down so that when I do any editing, it takes forever (about 20 seconds before a change happens). I cannot work with this so what can I do?

Answer 1

Just wondering: When you say you’re “changing all the verse markers”–what does that mean…?

Comments

I think that because I am copying and pasting, that I could have opened up a new book (Psalms) without vs numbers and then just add the verse formatting before each vs number after pasting it into paratext. I would love to know a simpler (more efficient way of going from microsoft to paratext. My translators do not yet have paratext capabilities because of poor local internet.

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I’m in the same boat–translators w/o Paratext, typists who don’t do USFM/backslash codes, and cut-&-paste from a word processor file (in my case, LibreOffice Writer) to Paratext. A few years ago someone helped me write a regular expression to find line-initial verse numbers and stick a \v_ in front of them (where _ = space). I offer it here for what it’s worth:

Here’s a regex that would probably work in various text editors (e.g. Notepad++) for line-initial verse numbers:
^(\s*)(\d+)\.?
\1\\v \2

Explanation:
^ beginning of line
(\s*) zero or more spaces --> save 1
(\d+) one or more digits --> save 2
\.? one optional period
The replacement string puts back the two saved items with \v between them, and ignores (tosses) the period.

In some other regex engines, the replacement character is $:
$1\\v $2

The \.? might not be necessary; it was added because my text had a period after some of the line-initial verse numbers. Hope that helps!

Admin Edit: Fixed missing backslash.

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What format is the text in the Word document? Does it just have plain
verse numbers (without SFM markers, such as \v \p etc)? It may be
possible to use some simple Find/Replace operations in Word to insert
those markers, then you could save the text (as a plain text document,
not a Word document) and import that SFM file into Paratext. I expect
that there are people on this list who have done similar things in the past.

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If I remember correctly, SILAS has a tool to help you do what you want. That is a Word macro and it should be found online other SIL software.

A big problem with Word is automatic formatting so make sure that is turned off in Word’s settings.

At the least, if your text is in Paratext without verse numbers, there was a keystroke, alt k, I believe which will sequentially add verse numbers wherever you click. And RegexPal is also useful
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I recommend you try SILAS, a Word template with very helpful macros, can help you attach styles to paragraphs in your text. After the text is correctly tagged with Scripture styles you can save the text (or export) to USFM format; the backslash codes will be inserted. After installing SILAS you attach it to a Word doc with Scripture text that is missing the codes. SILAS can be found here: http://lingtransoft.info/apps/silas-smart-interactive-layout-assistant-scripture

Each of the Scripture styles in Paratext is named after a backslash marker. So you might search for bold, centered text and have Word attach the "s - Section heading" style. "Chapter" and remove the word, attaching the c - Chapter Number style. I would start by find/replace and attaching paragraph styles. Make sure that every paragraph has a Scripture paragraph style attached; search for "default" and any automatic styles attached as the doc was being typed.

Don't worry about formatting verse numbers. Once you have the correct chapter and text styles (p, ip, q1, etc) attached you can run macro (from a menu) that will walk through the whole document, formatting verse numbers as it finds them in sequence, within Scripture paragraph styles. It restarts at v.1 after a correctly tagged Chapter number. If it sees a non-sequential number it asks what you want to do with it. It works beautifully, thanks to Jim Henderson.

KimB

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I’ll have to try that. Thanks for the help.
John+Wickberg

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Thanks for the tip, KimB
John+Wickberg

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Hi,
I have been working (months now) on parsing out the wordlist for the Kisar
bible. I just did an update and now my wordlist is no longer coming up and
I get an exception error message: paratext 8.0.100.45 system argument
exception progress Utils. cs:279
I hope I can recover all the work I have done.
John+Wickberg

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John+Wickberg,

Can you use Help > Report a Problem to send a problem report to the system? Your computer threw exceptions, but that didn’t include any of your data.

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In case this is related to the latest update, you can do this:

1. Turn off Automatic Updates on the Paratext Help menu, then close Paratext
2. Open Programs and Features
3. Click on “View installed updates” - in upper left corner
4. Scroll through the list of updates and then right click on the Paratext
   Patch 8.0.100.45 entry and choose Uninstall

Doing this will get you back to your previous version.

We did receive an automatic problem report and I’ll look at it more now.

John+Wickberg
Paratext Support

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Hi anon848905,
I don’t have a clue as to what that means. All I know is that when I use the wordlist function, nothing shows up.

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John+Wickberg,

Looks like your issue may be handled, but what I meant is that in Paratext
you can go to Help > Report a problem when you have a problem and this will
send in some more data to help determine what the problem actually is.

anon848905
Americas Area Language Technology Coordinator
[Email Removed]
[Phone Removed]Office at JAARS)
[Phone Removed]Cell)
Skype name: anon848905

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gotcha

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Love to, but apparently I’m not allowed–I went to the post, but there’s nothing to indicate I can edit it… Sorry,
Paul

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wdavidhj:

@Paul or an administrator: can you edit this to add the missing backslash near the end?:

Done

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Paul:

Love to, but apparently I’m not allowed–I went to the post, but there’s nothing to indicate I can edit it…

Don’t you see a little pencil icon at the bottom of your own posts? See the middle of the three grey icons in the screenshot below.

I think you’re allowed to edit up to about a month from when you post.

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Screenshot 2018-02-07 19.08.33.png1024×229 11.4 KB

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@ wdavidhj: there must be a time limit, because there’s no pencil on the post I wanted to edit… (there is one on my post from 23 Jan, which currently shows as 17 d[ays] ago)

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Paul:

there must be a time limit

Yes, I hadn’t realised how long ago you’d posted that. As I said, I think the time limit is one month.

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Shegnada:

there was a keystroke, alt k, I believe which will sequentially add verse numbers wherever you click.

Ctrl+K (What keyboard shortcuts are available in Paratext?).

Answer 2

Psalms is a big book. My first guess is that you don’t have View > By Chapter selected. Try that and see if it helps.

Comments

Hey Paul,
Thanks for the suggestion. After I switched to view chapter, it works normally when I edit.

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Paul:

View > By Chapter

Switching off View > By Chapter can be useful if you want to do certain things, e.g.:

• delete a bunch of sequential chapters (e.g. in a publishing project that’s a copy of a project where some chapters are consultant-checked and some are in draft);
• paste in a whole book from the clipboard;
• paste the chapter, verse and formatting markers from another version or project into part of a book that has no text entered, and where the markers represent the wrong versification, or are otherwise in error. (You could create a temporary project with the right markup in order to copy from it.);
• make quick corrections to issues throughout a book.

Answer 3

Hi John+Wickberg,
I uninstalled the update and got all my data back. So should I try the update again or what?
Thanks,
John+Wickberg C.

Comments

The problem you had is related to a code change in that patch, so you
should keep Automatic Updates turned off for now.

I’ve sent you some messages from the support system for some actions I need
from you for further investigation of the problem.

John+Wickberg
Paratext Support

Answer 4

anon512227:

Something I did has slowed paratext way down

If others have similar problems, here’s another suggestion:

There might be some impact on performance when the book you’re working on is viewed by chapter, but another book in the same group (group “A”, “B”, etc.) has By Chapter switched off. That book will scroll in sync whenever you change verse or chapter in the book you’re working on.