\b before a poetry section

Question

I’d appreciate some help as we go through our pre-publication tasks.

1. I’m getting the “punctuation missing at the end of paragraph” error because we have inserted \b before starting a poetry section (starting with \q1). Changing the \b to \nb solves that error, but then it produces the “Marker cannot occur here: \nb” error.
2. If there is no way to solve the problem in #1 (other than deleting the \b), is this the kind of problem that can just be denied? I see that the ESV also uses the \b before a poetry section, so it seems like what we’re doing should be okay, but for some reason, it’s showing up as an error.
3. Finally, this is not an error, but how do I get the chapter and verse numbers to be in Burmese rather than the standard Arabic 1, 2, 3…?

Answer 1

Hi skim1124,

Take a look at Checking inventories > Markers missing final punctuation.
When you’re in there, click on the Options… button
I think you could get rid of the errors by adjusting settings in there.
If poetry is often preceded by a colon, then adding it to the list of Sentence Final Punctuation would get rid of the errors.
Removing b from Markers that Start New Sentence could also work, but you should consider where else you’ve used \b.
It is the kind of problem which could be denied, but it’s better if you can change the rules as above. Just don’t relax the rules so much that you’d miss true errors.

To get chapter and verse numbers to appear as Burmese numerals:

1. For print publications using PTXprint: There’s an option to change digit style in the font selector.
2. For print publications using Publishing Assistant / Adobe InDesign: There’s an option in PubAssist to select digit style. If the particular Burmese digit sequence is not available it can be added by editing/adding an XML file in C:\Program Files\Publishing Assistant 6.1\NumberScripts.
3. For apps created with Scripture App Builder: “Myanmar” is one option for “Numeral System” on the Books Styles page
4. For text in the Digital Bible Library, you must create a dblchanges.txt document in the Paratext project folder to add \cp and \vp markers containing the Burmese digits. I just did this for a Khmer text and it appears that its page on Bible.com is now using Khmer digits for the verse selector and the page title, but the verse numbers in the text remain European digits. (The translation won’t load at all in my YouVersion app since this change, so not sure if it’s still in process or is now completely broken.) Here is the dblchanges.txt which I used:

# Add Khmer numerals for chapter and verse numbers
# First copy verse numbers into \cp and \vp
"\\c (\d{1,3})"	>	"\\c \1\r\n\\cp \1"
"\\v (\d{1,3})"	>	"\\v \1 \\vp \1\\vp*"

# Change each European digit "in" a \cp or \vp to a Khmer digit
in "\\[cv]p .*?[\\\r]":	"0"	>	"០"
in "\\[cv]p .*?[\\\r]":	"1"	>	"១"
in "\\[cv]p .*?[\\\r]":	"2"	>	"២"
in "\\[cv]p .*?[\\\r]":	"3"	>	"៣"
in "\\[cv]p .*?[\\\r]":	"4"	>	"៤"
in "\\[cv]p .*?[\\\r]":	"5"	>	"៥"
in "\\[cv]p .*?[\\\r]":	"6"	>	"៦"
in "\\[cv]p .*?[\\\r]":	"7"	>	"៧"
in "\\[cv]p .*?[\\\r]":	"8"	>	"៨"
in "\\[cv]p .*?[\\\r]":	"9"	>	"៩"

Blessings,
LivingField

Comments

Hi LivingField,

Thanks. Adding a comma to the Sentence Final Punctuation list did the trick.

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Just a warning that adding a comma as sentence final punctuation may fix certain situations, but it can also hide errors since Paratext will no longer report an error if you accidentally use a comma instead of a period.

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Thanks for the heads-up. We’re done with the drafting and when we checked there were no errors of that kind before we added the comma, so I hope they won’t be introduced during the pre-publication process. But definitely something to be aware of.

Answer 2

A word of caution with using \b markers:
When we work in preparing for typesetting, we say \b means “bring money”.
Our typesetter says to use great caution with \b because it adds extra lines and spacing that can add a lot to the cost of your publication. This is especially true in the OT.
Rule of thumb, \b as a stanza break.

Comments

Good advice.

Does anyone have experience with how many pages using \b before and after every stanza of poetry might add, either for an NT or an OT? I know that different font sizes and page sizes and margins are used, but I’m just wondering what the range might be.

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There would be several factors here. Is the project single column or double column? Basically if you count the number of lines on an average page you can figure out the number of pages being added by dividing the number of \b markers by the number of lines on a page. If it is a double column then you could divide the result by 2.

If it is single column and you have 40 lines per page and 800 \b markers then you are adding 20 pages. If it is double column then you are adding 10 pages. Of course it is not that straightforward since adding some \b markers to a particular book might not add any pages to the book if there is extra space at the end of the book.