Stylesheet missing error message

Question

The administrator for a translation project in which I am a “translator” for deleted a style from the stylesheet (we have some custom styles, this was one of them). When I did send/receive to get the updated project, Paratext 8 reported that the stylesheet was “missing”, and could not load the project. This project had been successfully migrated from PT7.5 a few weeks ago.

I checked the directory, and sure enough the stylesheet was missing. I asked the administrator to s/r again, but to no avail. The stylesheet was on his computer, but it would not get propagated to me. The admin sent me the stylesheet via email, and now things are working fine, including multiple subsequent s/r operations.

Now another user has reported the same problem with the project. Anyone seen this, or know what is going on?

Answer 1

Okay, I see what happened now.

The proper way to create customized stylesheets in 8.0 is to change or create a custom.sty file in the project. During the migration to 8.0, Paratext examines the stylesheet used by a project and compares it to usfm.sty. Any differences that are found are put into a new custom.sty file inside the project. It then changes the stylesheet of the project to be usfm.sty (custom.sty overrides the settings in usfm.sty). This seems to have worked just fine for your project.

However, 4 days ago, an administrator changed the project back to using the old stylesheet from PT7 - usfm_indppa.sty - (he must have put it into his My Paratext 8 Projects folder). However, stylesheet files outside of projects are no longer S/R’d in 8.0, so when the changed settings got to the other users, they got a “missing file” error.

To fix this issue, an administrator must change the stylesheet back to usfm.sty and then do a S/R. Any user already affected may have to copy the usfm_indppa.sty file, temporarily, so they are able to do a S/R to get the fixed settings.

In the future, any wanted changes to the stylesheet should be done by changing the custom.sty file in the project.

Comments

Thanks! This fits with what my evolving understanding of what happened also. I have passed this on to the administrator. So all translation projects now use usfm.sty as the main stylesheet, even if the PT 7.5 used a different named stylesheet before migration? Good to know, and also how to make changes in the future if needed.

I’ve been pushing to have this made into a resource, rather than continue as a translation project with over a hundred users.

Answer 2

Can you clarify what stylesheet was missing? Was it the custom.sty file? or
the main stylesheet that is called in the Project Properties and Settings?

anon848905
Americas Area Language Technology Coordinator
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Skype name: anon848905

Answer 3

It was the main stylesheet. I think the style had to be deleted from both stylesheets, but not 100% sure. IIRC, he said he deleted it from the main one, but it was still appearing as an option when he typed “\” to edit the text. So he deleted it from custom.sty as well. If that doesn’t make sense, I’ll have to ask him about it.

Comments

anon229947:

I think it had to be deleted from both, but not 100% sure. IIRC, he said he deleted it from the main one, but it was still appearing as an option when he typed “\” to edit the text. So he deleted it from custom.sty as well. If that doesn’t make sense, I’ll have to ask him about it.

Here it sounds like you are talking about a single style in the stylesheet being deleted which will never generate a “missing stylesheet” error. So, yeah, it doesn’t make sense as it doesn’t seem to be related to your original problem.

The custom.sty file (i.e. the stylesheet for a project) being deleted wouldn’t have generated a “stylesheet missing” error so it must have been a main stylesheet (i.e. stylesheet not inside the project). The main stylesheet should never be edited or deleted. They do not get S/R’d in 8.0, so it couldn’t have gotten deleted via a S/R. Someone had to have manually deleted it on each machine. It would be nice to know why someone deleted it in the first place (and why others seem to be following suit).

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Hi,
I also received the same message after doing send and receive on that same project of which I am an observer: missing usfm_xxxxxx.sty in the project folder.
I probably did something that I shouldn’t have which is to copy and paste a stylesheet from a similarly styled project and renamed it. And it worked. (I will delete this before doing a send and receive.)
I hope this bit of info can shed light and help solve the problem.

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anon791970,
When we started this project in 7.5, we used usfm_hbkeng.sty as the basis for this project, and added 3-4 styles. So if that is what you substituted, it should work fine except for the ones we added. How does \tbi, \bis, and \contoh (or \cth) look on your computer?

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anon291708:

Here it sounds like you are talking about a single style in the stylesheet being deleted which will never generate a “missing stylesheet” error.

Yes, the administrator was deleting a single style. He did not delete the stylesheet from his computer, because he was able to retrieve it from his computer and send it to me later when I discovered mine missing.

[quote=“anon291708, post:4, topic:1770”]
The main stylesheet should never be edited or deleted. They do not get S/R’d in 8.0, so it couldn’t have gotten deleted via a S/R. Someone had to have manually deleted it on each machine. It would be nice to know why someone deleted it in the first place (and why others seem to be following suit).[/quote]

No one is deleting the stylesheet from their computer, Paratext 8 is doing it

Answer 4

Just had another user report the same problem. 4 down, 126 to go!

Comments

anon229947:

No one is deleting the stylesheet from their computer, Paratext 8 is doing it

Hmmmm… This is really strange, then. Let me clarify what is happening:
A stylesheet file was copied to the project folder (usfm_hbkeng.sty). After it was manually edited, it suddenly started being deleted by Paratext when it’s S/R’d?

EDIT: If the project is not sensitive, maybe it would be easier to just tell us the name of the project so we can see what is going on?

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anon291708:

A stylesheet file was copied to the project folder (usfm_hbkeng.sty). After it was manually edited, it suddenly started being deleted by Paratext when it’s S/R’d?

EDIT: If the project is not sensitive, maybe it would be easier to just tell us the name of the project so we can see what is going on?

The project name is “Pedoman Penafsiran Alkitab (PPA)”. This project was started in Paratext 7.x last year. We used the stylesheet “usfm_hbkeng.sty” as the basis, renamed it, and modified it as needed, including adding a few styles. A few weeks ago we migrated it to PT8.0. Last week, the administrator deleted one of the added styles from both the main stylesheet, and the custom stylesheet. The next time I did S/R, I got the error, and the main stylesheet was missing, as it had been deleted from my computer. Several other users have experience the same thing

To fix the problem once it occurred, I got the missing stylesheet from the administrator and copied it into “My Paratext 8 Projects” folder, and everything is fine now.