Same Inventory to be used in Multiple Projects

Question

Is it Possible to use same Inventory (Character, Punctuation, Repeated Words…) in Multiple Projects. I have completed Inventories in one of my Projects and want to use the same Inventory in a different project. Is there a Copy Paste function available.

Answer 1

Hi anon606768, welcome to the Paratext supporters site.

I believe it is possible but, caveat, I have never done this before. So if you are not comfortable editing XML files in the Paratext project folders, consider finding an experienced Paratext supporter who can do this for you.

There are some settings that Paratext allows you copy from one project to another, such as Quotation rules and Scripture Reference settings. Be sure you do this for as many settings as you can. However for many of the checks there is not an easy way of transferring the inventories from one project to another. So what you would need to do is copy the relevant sections of Settings.xml from one project to the other—before doing this, however, you might consider the advantage of redoing the inventories again as a kind of double check.

Now if you do want to transfer the Inventories, this is what I would do. (The project I want to modify I will call NewProj and the one I want to use as the source, OldProj):

1. Do a Send/Receive to create a backup of your project and close Paratext.
2. In both the OldProj and NewProj folders (C:\My Paratext 8 Projects\OldProj and C:\My Paratext 8 Projects\NewProj), make a backup copy of Settings.xml and Settings.xml.BAK in case something goes wrong.
3. In a text editor (I recommend Notepad++) open the Settings files in both C:\My Paratext 8 Projects\NewProj and C:\My Paratext 8 Projects\OldProj
4. In Settings.xml there are sections called
   <ValidCharacters>
   <InvalidCharacters>
   <ValidPunctuation>
   <InvalidPunctuation>
   <Pairs>
   <RepeatableWords>
   <NonRepeatableWords>
   <MatchedPairingCharacters>
   <UnmatchedPairingCharacters>
   <SentenceFinalPunctuation>
   <MarkersRequiringSentenceFinalPunctuation>
   <IgnoreFollowing>
   Copy the contents of these sections from OldProj Settings.xml to NewProj Settings.xml and close both settings files
5. Delete NewProj Settings.xml.BAK
6. Restart Paratext and verify that the Inventories have been transferred.
7. If everything looks good, do a Send/Receive
   If there are problems you can restore the Settings files backups, or delete the entire project folder and Receive it back the way it was the last time you did a Send/Receive

Comments

Thank you CrazyRocky for the prompt reply. Really appreciate it.
I will discuss this with the team and see if this is absolutely required. They would have to go through the Inventories and check even after the changes have been made which for me is equal to doing it from scratch. Still its their decision.
But again, thank you for taking time and explaining it.