TECkit Map Converter vs Manual

Question

Hi, First time here. It looks like most posts regarding TECkit map were few years old and there is not much documentation on this? I have a mapping I made but it looks like I will have to start a new project in order to fire the converter? This is not a choice for me as I am trying to edit an existing project and I don’t want to negotiate having a new project with the Bible Society. I’ve also looked into the Bulk SFM converter but that looks scary as it is showing me in the sample it WILL convert the SFM tags.

Since I have the luxury of one to one mapping for my characters, am I better served just search/replace within Paratext to ensure zero messing with the USFM tags? Search/Replace does not touch USFM markers right?

Thanks
anon395529

Answer 1

Thank you Generic.User, great instructions. I actually didn’t know that at all.

I was able to do it as you said and it looks good. However, it seems checking “transliteration” as type of project make the project not “editable”? Which I assume is what causes me not have access to “checking inventories” in the new project? Sounds like this is perhaps by design so that the child project can be constantly auto updated via the encoding converter.

Create DBL bundle also greyed out, how would I go about uploading this to DBL? Happy to read manual.

Sorry I am quite new to Paratext, just saw a problem and trying to help out. Really probably the old project should/could be scrapped as it is not even Unicode but just able to submit this one to replace the old one in DBL would be good.

Thank you!
anon395529

Comments

Dear ___,

There is a way to make it editible. I will post detailed instructions on how to do that is a while. Basically you have to go into user permissions and give yourself the rights to edit it.

As for uploading to DBL I am not sure how to do that. We just use this for our consutlants since we use a non-latin script and it is easier for them to have a transliteration to look at in addition to the base text. I am sure someone else will know the answer.

I am not a huge fan of just deleting original versions of anything. So a bit of a cheat I have used (apologies to Paratext if this is not the right way to do it) is to create a Back Translation project (though now I think Auxiliry Project is a much better idea) and just import all your books into that before doing anything to the original. I can send details on how to do that as well if you would like. Then you can change your orginal and always have a “copy” of it in case you need to old non-Unicode version for some reason. Once more there might be a better way of doing it but this is what I used to do. If there is a better way, I hope someone else will step in and tell us.

In Him,

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Thanks again, I understand what you are saying about keeping the history. I am not the admin so I will need to ask them to do it.

I looked at the permissions and not can’t figure it out. It says “editable books” none then I have permission to add the books…

I experimented with the “new project” dialog and the ability to select “editable” goes away as soon as the transliteration type is selected (I am repeating myself!)

Thanks
anon395529

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Dear ___,

I guess the way I used to make mine editable is not there anymore, sorry. My old one is still editible but I tried making a new one and your are right it is not editable. But you can change the one you have already made into Transliteralion (Manual) and then if you go to the advanced tab you can make it editable (if it does not do that automatically).

In Him,

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Dear ___,

Ran some test on the ones I have and yes you are correct, if you are using Encoding Converters they are not editable and if you do edit it the changes get wiped once the converter runs again (I think the old projects I have that allow editing are bugs).

Anyway if you want to edit and run checks on the material you will have change it to manual transliteration and make it editable as follows:

I. Open Project Properties:

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II. Change the Type of Project to Transliteration (Manual)

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(You will see that the Encoding Converter option has now vanished).

III. Go to the Advanced Tab and Enable Editing.

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After you press OK you should be able to edit the material and run checks.
But if you make any changes in the Original source/base Project this project will not update.

A work around for that would be to create one more Project using Transliteration (using Encoding Converter) and just copying and pasting changes from that one into this manual project.

If you still cannot edit the text then you might need to change user permissions. Since this is already rather long I will add that in another post.

In Him,

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Changing User Permissions:
In case you cannot edit the material after changing it to Transliteration (Manual) and need to edit it.

I. Open User Permissions

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II. Open the Book Permissions

Note: If you already have Editable Books: All books in project and Other Permissions: Terms, Rendering, Spellings, Passages, Progress under you name you are all set and skip the rest of this if not continue to III.

III. Choose the Books You Would like to Edit.

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If you want them all then just choose 1
If you would like individual books put a check mark under the ones you want to edit. As 2 shows.
Note: If you do not select a book you cannot do find and replace changes in that book. So this is a good way to protect a book if you would like.
Once you are done press OK.

IV. Then Go To Other Permissions.

V. Choose the Permissions You Want.

If you want them all then just choose 1
If you would like individual permissions put a check mark under the ones you want to edit. As 2 shows. But I would suggest you chose them all so you can do anything you need.
Once you are done press OK.

1 You will notice that you now have permission to edit all book. - Highlighted
2 And Other Permissions. - Highlighted
3 Press ok.

And thus you should be able to edit and change anything you need.

In Him,

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Generic.User,

Thank you so much for taking the time to write such a detailed step by step guide. I hope this will be helpful for someone that comes later as well. Changing the project type from “Transliteration (Using Encoding Converter)” to "Transliteration (manual) unlocked all the editing options I think I have exhuasted the original scope of this question so I should close this.

I am converting the Lisu bible from non unicode to Unicode, thanks for lending a hand in that.

bible.com

yi ce yi wu To L 1 | LRB Bible | YouVersion

mu kw mi nA tA ce;O m # be 38:4. s 44:24. yo 1:1,3. ro 1:20. vi 1:10,16. vi 11:3. mo 4:11. yi ce yi wu kw wu-s le mu kwO be mi nA tA ce;O lo= #s 40:13,14. ye 4:23. mi nA ny yi pe, m

Blessings
anon395529

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This conversation took place mostly before my time zone was active. I am very glad to hear of the way to make the conversion project editable. Without that option, my standard process has been a third project where I routinely import the books from the conversion project. This would be the project I publish from.

There are benefits to having a third project and keeping the conversion project uneditable. The conversion project becomes a “sandbox” where you can try out different conversion processes if you are struggling with spelling in the converted project. Also, you can compare the two projects after a conversion or after editing in the main project to see the exact impact of your changes so that nothing unwanted slips in.

This may not be needed in the project under discussion in this email chain but I wanted to include it in the conversation for reference.

Blessings

Answer 2

Hi anon395529,
Search and replace can affect markers. Using the in Verse text only option can help but may miss some words that need to be changed. With TecKit it is impossible to change markers, only publishable vernacular text (as defined in the style sheet) is converted.
The most important function of TecKit is to go from one encoding to another, usually from a hacked Legacy Encoding to Unicode, but it is not limited to that.
I have used TecKit in Paratext for some time now on several languages: Serbian (Cyrillic to Latin), Oromo (Latin to Ethiopic), Thai (Unicode to Zwagi hacked Unicode, Bidirectional) and Chinese (Traditional to Simplified, ICU Transliteration + Techkit daisy chained).
It does have a steep learning curve but once set up does a very good job. And if you find a mistake in your conversion it is easy to fix and redo the entire project.

That said, I think it depends on the complexity of the conversion and if this is a one-off conversion. If the conversion is simple and you do not need to repeat it then feel free to use find and replace.

Comments

Thanks CrazyRocky,

I actually already have a Teckit mapping done. When I opened the Bulk Sfm converter it is showing me sample text and it showed as if it would change the tags. Maybe just bad sample screen. So I was bit spooked. Maybe I will give that a try thanks.

Just to calrify, did you run the conversion within paratext? If so, how? Can’t find docs on this. If Bulk Sfm converter I think I can do that.

I am quite surprised that there is option to exclude tags in paratext search replace. I would imagine most of the users won’t be changing tags a lot or at least want option to exclude them. I guess I will make a suggestion.

Thanks

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Dear ___,

You can make a New Project called that is connected to you original project so it is not really considered a fresh project but a subordinate/child project and gets all of its rights from the parent project.

I presume you know how to do most of this but in case anyone else whats to know how to do this I am going to give a bit more detail them you would need.

Creating a Transliteration Project: That Inherits the Registration of its Base Project

To do this open the New Project option.

Then choose the Transliteration Settings.

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1. Give it a Long Name
2. And a Short Name
(I would suggest using the same name as your normal project and just adding transliteration at the end. So that they are right next to each other in your project list).
3. Choose the lanauge that you will be working in.
4. Choose your versification
(Steps 3-4 are really up to you an you can choose about anything you want though 4 might be chosen for you depending on your source/base project)
5. Choose Transliteration (using Encoding Converter)
(You have to choose this or it will not use the TECkit map will not work)

6. Choose the Project you will be using as your Source/Base
7. Choose the Coverter/TECkit you would like to use to make the Transliteration (in your case the one you made).
(Do Not check the “Apply encoding converter in reverse” unless you specifically created the TECkit to work that way and want it to work in reverse.)
8. Do not Check the “Create Seperate Registration”
If you do then it really will create a new project which is not what you wanted to do.
9. Press OK

Once you open the “New” child Transliteration Project you will see the material the output of the converter (TECkit in your case).
It might take a bit of time the first time you open the project since it will run the converter on all the material in your sourse/base project and save it in the “New” child Transliteration Project.

Answer 3

When you ask about documentation, are you referring to

1. using TECkit in Paratext -or-
2. howto to write a TECkit map and use the command line tools that TECkit provides?

If you are referring to #2, there is documentation for TECkit.

Comments

Thanks Bobby, I was asking more #1, I think Generic.User has kindly pointed me to the way. Thank you.