Problem with Rendering Tool when using \tl \pn \png, etc

Question

In the Luvale Bible translation (Zambia, Africa), we are using \tl to identify transliterated words, \pn for proper names, and \png for geographical proper names. However, we have found that words that are thus marked, are not recognized as correctly rendered by the rendering tool.
For example: Alpha is transliterated \tl Alafwa\tl*, and I have Alafwa as a rendering, but no check-mark is displayed in the rendering tool that it has found Alafwa in the text, against the Greek word ἄλφα, in Paratext 8.0.100.75. For some reason, it does work correctly in Paratext 7.6, but not in 8.0.
If however the marker is \nd or \k, the rendering is recognized.
Is there something I am doing incorrectly? Is there a way to inform the rendering tool to recognize the additional text markers?
Thanks in advance for your help.
anon308016, Luvale Bible Translator, ZBS, Zambia

Answer 1

Dear anon308016,

I am not sure why the Biblical Terms tool is not recognizing your words, but you are correctly using your sfm’s. You should report a problem. For at least \pn and \png it seems like an error. For \tl it is possible that that is expected behavior since \tl is meant to identify transliterated words as NOT belonging to the language of the project. I myself can quite see situations where we would want \tl text as a rendering and so it should be included in the problem report also.

While there might be some hard-wiring involved somewhere, I do know that a lot of this behavior is controlled by the stylesheet. If you look at the usfm.sty stylesheet in your My Paratext 8 Projects folder, you can see that the text properties assigned for the sfms you mention are:

\tl - \TextProperties publishable nonvernacular

\pn - \TextProperties publishable vernacular

\png - \png* \TextProperties publishable vernacular

Here you can see that \tl is nonvernacular whilst \pn and \png are vernacular (as are most other markers.)

We never edit the usfm.sty file, but you could create a custom.sty file and place it in your project folder and set the TextProperties for \tl to vernacular and see if the Biblical Terms tools then does what you want at least for the \tl text. Of course, this would then make it \tl text convert-able and have other impacts so it should be considered a temporary measure. Take a look at custom styles in the Paratext Help menu for guidance.

Blessings,

Shegnada James

Language Technology and Publishing Coordinator, SIL Nigeria

Text Processing Specialist – Complex Script, GPS, SIL Intl

Skype: Shegnada.james.

[Email Removed]

+1 972 974 8146

Answer 2

Dear Shegnada

Thanks for the quick reply. I tried what you have suggested, changing the properties of \tl to being publishable vernacular text in the custom.sty, and then saved that file, restarted PT, and still it is no different. So I guess I should report it as a problem.

Thanks for your help.

anon308016, Luvale Bible Translator, ZBS, Zambia

Answer 3

For some closure on this question, let me include how it was resolved: I did send a problem report concerning the issue mentioned in this post, and Phil Leckrone identified that the problem was actually with my custom.sty file, that was too large, with redundant data. When I reduced its size, and left in the custom.sty only what I wanted to change for each marker, things got sorted out for the renderings tool as well. Everything is working fine now. Thanks again Phil.

anon308016, Zambia