How to find and delete periods at the end of footnotes

Question

Some projects after some time decide that they do not want periods or other sentence final punction at the end of their footnotes. Using find and replace is the obvious method. However, it is easy to have extra spaces between the period and the end of footnote marker “\f*”.

To find all periods at the end of footnotes regardless of the number of spaces (including none) between the period and the USFM “\f*”, a regular expression is needed.
The regular expression \.\s?\\f\* will find all periods at the end of footnotes regardless of the number of spaces between the period and \f*.

This find and replace can be done by various means, but it is possible to use simple regular expressions in Paratext’s Find and Replace dialogue, if “regex:” is typed in the Find box.

Procedure:

1. Open the Find and Replace dialogue by typing the shortcut key Ctrl+h.
2. Type regex:\.\s?\\f\* in the Find box.
3. Type \f* in the replace box.
4. Verify that the Match in: box is set to All text.
5. Set the range for the book or books where you want to delete the periods.
6. Set Restrictions to No Restrictions.
7. Click on the Replace button.

Find-Replace dialogue-21281×1429 202 KB

Example of remove final periods for all footnotes in Genesis

8. Step through each proposed change clicking Yes or No as appropriate.

Admin Edit: Fixed formatting of post.

Answer 1

I think the search regex needs some more backslashes, as . * and \ are metacharacters.

regex:\.\s*\\f\*

Paulus+Kieviet

Admin Edit: Fixed formatting of email post