Autocorrect file targets Find-Replace dialog

Question

Our project has a set of autocorrect rules for converting straight double-quotes to curly double-quotes. First there’s a set of rules that takes care of openers, then a single “elsewhere” rule to convert the rest to closers. (This way we don’t have to specify all the contexts where a closer might occur.) It’s a beautiful solution EXCEPT:

I sometimes need to find all occurrences of straight double quotes so I can manually fix them. However, since autocorrect targets text typed into the find and replace fields, there’s no way to search for straight quotes (without editing the autocorrect file before and after).

Any ideas for a simpler solution? Could there be an option in the Find-Replace dialog that lets you “disable autocorrect”?

Thanks!

[Follow-up: If I disable the rule then run the search on a straight quote character, then re-enable the rule and reopen PT, the straight quote remains in the search history and I can select it and search without it’s converting into a curly.]

Answer 1

I suggest you do a regular expressions search (regex). The basic process is described in Help:

image722×327 68 KB

Answer 2

I’ve bumped into this as well. One solution might be to open
Character Map and copy the straight-quote character from there.
Another solution, if you can remember the Unicode code point for
double quote (0022; 0027 is apostrophe-single quote), is to type
these four digits into Paratext, then without moving the cursor type
. This will toggle between showing a character vs. its
Unicode value. It works for me in both Paratext 8 and 9, in both a
text window and the Find/Replace box.

In Paratext Help see: How do I find out the Unicode value of a
character? This solution uses this hint in reverse to enter a
character via its Unicode value.

It also works in LibreOffice when entering text, but not in the Find
or Replace dialogs (at least, not for me in LO Writer 6.3, Linux
version).

Comments

Yikes! Somehow Thunderbird rendered my angle-bracketed “alt-x” as hidden
or something.
In Paratext or LibreOffice you type “alt-x”(without the quotes) to
toggle between
viewing a character and its Unicode value.

Answer 3

Thanks! This is all I need.

Answer 4

What about doing it in RegExPal? Does Autocorrect apply there also?

Answer 5

Autocorrect does not interfere with RegEx pal. So that’s another option (though a dangerous one when I’m in a hurry!).