\nd_...\nd* syntax

Question

I have a question about \nd ‘name of Deity’. In USFM 2.4 (p. 53) the syntax is:

\nd_…\nd*

If for some reason there is no space following the opening \nd, and I type the closing marker, like:

\ndManeka\nd*

ParaTExt rightly flags it red. If I then add a space preceding the name, ParaTExt automatically adds a space following the name, like:

\nd_…_\nd*

My inclination is to add a space after the closing marker \nd*, but if I do so there are now two spaces following the ‘name of Deity’–one automatically added inside the markup boundaries and one added by me.

Is this behaviour (i.e., automatically adding a space following a word within marker boundaries) expected?

Answer 1

Because \ndManeka is not a valid marker it gets flagged. There should automatically be a space added in front of the \nd* because it is a valid marker and gets separated from the bad marker.

In order to pull the \nd* back I would suggest searching for space \nd* and replacing with no-space \nd* (rather than the entire phrase).

I would be careful adding a space after the \nd* because there could be punctuation so you end up with \nd* . (or some other punctuation). However, if there is no space then you end up with the word being concatenated to the following word.

Here you could use a regular expression in the find and do something like the following:
Find=regex:\s\nd*(?=\p{L})
Replace=\nd*

(Add a space after the \nd* in the replace) This looks for a space followed by \nd* and no-space and a letter. It then replaces it with no-space \nd* and a space.

Paratext adds spaces in some what seem like strange ways. If you have double clicked on a word then generally the space is included and so if you add the \nd…\nd* markers then the space gets included before the \nd*. To avoid this you should select only the word to be marked.

As to the expression not being found in the search, I’m guessing that it could have to do with extra spaces around the expression or another setting in the search window - I tried a similar search and it worked fine.

Comments

Thanks anon848905. That’s some very helpful information.

Answer 2

Just to add a bit more info:

• if I try to Find/Replace \nd Maneka \nd* (in order to replace it with \nd Maneka\nd*) there are “No matches found” (even though I select \nd Maneka \nd* in the text and press CTRL + H, and the string \nd Maneka \nd* appears in the Find What box)
• I’m using View > Standard