Is it advisable to do Find/Replace in .sfc files directly?

Question

How can we Find/Replace specific punctuation/quote sequences?

The Paratext AutoCorrect feature is enabled. Find/Replace does not find any punctuation/smart-quote combination when displaying as Standard.
Nor will it work for something like
Find >?
Replace with ?>
when displaying as Unformatted, since >? is converted to smart single-quote question mark.

I don’t see a way to use Find/Replace in the Tools–Checking inventories–Punctuation inventory window. So, I want to open each .sfc file in a text editor in order to do Find/Replace for a few specific sequences, some of which are mixed in with thousands of other sequences in the inventory window cited above.

Is there a better way?
anon589069

Answer 1

anon589069:

Nor will it work for something like
Find >?
Replace with ?>
when displaying as Unformatted, since >? is converted to smart single-quote question mark.

Yes, when AutoCorrect is active in a project it can make trying to type certain characters difficult. I would suggest typing those characters in a different location (maybe a Notepad file) and the copying/pasting them into the find dialog. It is important that punctuation be used consistently, so if you are currently typing the smart single quote rather than >, I would make sure that the replace window is replacing with the correct character.

When you have the punctuation inventory open you should be able to see a concordance view of the issues at the bottom of the window. Double clicking on one of those entries should take you to that verse in the text and highlight the issue. You can then use CTRL+h to open the find/replace dialog to locate the rest of the items. Whatever text is highlighted when you open the find dialog should appear in the find window.

While it is possible to open and edit the text files (in your case .sfc files), I would recommend working within Paratext if at all possible. And make sure you do S/R before and after working on these kinds of changes - since they can affect a number of different verses.

Comments

That was exactly what we needed to know, anon848905, thank you so much.

Now, after my efforts yesterday, the project I was inquiring about now displays angle brackets in ALL views, while my project will NOT display angle brackets in ANY view!?

Any suggestions?
anon589069

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anon589069 -
I’m a little confused by what you are seeing and are wanting to see.
Paratext does not automatically change << to “, but this can be done using an autoCorrect.txt file when typing or by Find/Replace for what already exists.

I would expect that for a particular project - the quotation marks should be consistent. If you are wanting the marks of a particular project to be formatted differently, you would need to make those changes. This is not normally affected by the particular view that you are using.

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Yes, we have been using PT with the autocorrect.txt file all along. That is what is perplexing. I do not know what I might have done to suddenly change the behaviour in the various display views.
autocorrect.txt CONTENTS:

Change space (\u0020) between quotes to hair spaces (\u200A)

“\u0020<–>“\u200A‘
‘\u0020‘<–>‘\u200A“
’\u0020’>–>’\u200A”
”\u0020>–>”\u200A’

Change angle brackets into curly quotes

<–>‘
‘‘–>“

–>’

’’–>”

Answer 2

If you don’t feel that you have a satisfactory answer yet, anon589069, I would be happy to take a look. It may be that nobody has yet understood your problem. Sometimes it is much easier to understand an issue visually. My Skype name for contact purposes is anon758749, or email [Email Removed]