Is there a quick way to paste big text to the right?

Claudia Frank

Hi,
not sure but I assume you are looking for the block copy, do you?
If so, press the left Alt key while selecting the text, copy and
paste it whereever you want it to be.

Cheers
Claudia

Hoakin Singer

Hi Claudia,no i was interested in creating 2 columns , imagine a paper that has text on left and right with a separation in between . Most common use ,lyrics and closing credits in movies,remember how there sometimes are 2 lines of text side by side.Thank you.

Claudia Frank

Hi Hoakin Singer,

I still think this can be achieved by using the block copy.
Let’s assume we have the following text

this 
is
the
text
on
the
left
whereas
this
should
be
on
the
right

We can move the desired text by pressing and holding the left ALT key and selcting from “whereas” to “right”.
Press strg+x to cut out the selection, put the cursor on the position where the first word should start and press
strg+v. Done.

Then we should have something like this

this 
is
the                         whereas
text                        this
on                          should
the                         be
left                        on
                            the
                            right

Done. Or?

Cheers
Claudia

Hoakin Singer

@Claudia-Frank said:

strg+x

Hello Claudia.
Thank you for your time!
It did work,but the result wasn’t as i expected,the formatting of the text needs rework,so i guess NPPP isn’t good for what i want to achieve. Will try on a image editor.
Thank you again , i hope and wish to you the best.

Singer

Claudia Frank

Hi Singer,

if there is a repeating pattern in how you want the text to be modified then
it might be that there are other possible solutions.
Can you show us an example what exactly you try to achieve?
But if you already found a solution with another program than
I’m fine too. ;-)

All the best to you as well.

Claudia

guy038

Hi Hoakin, Claudia and All,

Hoakin, I think that we can use some regexes, in order to achieve what you would like to !

For instance, I suppose that, from the original list ( 2 x 4 lines ), below :

Sir William
Robert
Jo
Louise-Elisabeth
Shakespeare
Pattinson
Burt  
Vigée Le Brun

OR from the original list ( 1 * 4 lines ), below :

Sir William Shakespeare   
Robert Pattinson
Jo Burt  
Louise-Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun

You would expect the same final list below :

     Sir William Shakespeare   
          Robert Pattinson
              Jo Burt  
Louise-Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun

No problem. Just the time to run 2/3 Searches/Replacements !!

Of course, I needed some test text and I was thinking of a small list of real names and forenames of celebrities, with some compound names and some compound forenames, too !

I, finally, chose the list of the 32 repute classical harpists, taken from the link below :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_classical_harpists

Note that I don’t specially like or hate harp !!, Just hazard, while surfing on the Net :-)

So, insert, in a NEW tab, the 32 forenames, below, without any indentation :

Nancy
Jana
Alice
Pearl
Elaine
Osian
Vincent
Sidonie
Marcel
Alphonse
Elizabeth
Pierre
Yolanda
Johann Baptist
Lucile
Susann
François Joseph
Jean Henri
Şirin
Laura
Edna
Ann
Anna-Maria
Casper
Henriette
Marisa
Victor
Carlos
Marcel
Sylvia
Aristid
Nicanor

Some hypotheses :

The variable N will represent the total number of forenames / names, that is to say, the value 32, in our example
The variable M will represent the number of characters of the greatest forename, that is to say the value 15 ( Forename François Joseph, in our example )
The different S/R, below, must have the Regular expression search mode checked and the . matches newline option unchecked, in the Replace dialog ( CTRL + R )
You must go back to the very beginning of the list ( with CTRL + Origin ), BEFORE each S/R

Perform the first S/R, below :

SEARCH ^[^|\r\n]+[^ |]\K($|\|)|^.{M}\K + replacing the M variable by the appropriate integer ( 15, in our example )

REPLACE (?1 |) with M Spaces, between the (?1 and |) strings ( 15 spaces, in our example ), that is to say :

(?1               |)

Click, TWICE, on the Replace All button

Now, add, AFTER the present list, the 32 names, below, without any indentation :

Allen
Bouskova
Chalifoux
Chertok
Christy
Ellis
Fanelli
Goossens
Grandjany
Hasselmans
Hainen DePeters
Jamet
Kondonassis
Krumpholtz
Lawrence
McDonald
Naderman
Naderman
Pancaroğlu
Peperara
Phillips
Hobson Pilot
Ravnopolska-Dean
Reardon
Renié
Robles
Salvi
Salzedo
Tournier
Woods
Von Würtzler
Zabaleta

Perform the second S/R, below:

SEARCH (.+)(?=\R(.+\R){N-1}(.+))|.(?s).+ replacing the N-1 expression by the appropriate number ( 31, in our example )

REPLACE \1\3

Click, ONCE, on the Replace All button

Note :

The dot, before the (?s) syntax, represents 1 char. NON EOL, to avoid that the second alternative selects ALL the remaining text, when the cursor is located :
- Between the PIPE character and an EOL character, after a previous match of the first alternative of the regex
- In possible blank lines, preceding the list, BEFORE any S/R process

Finally, perform the third S/R, below :

SEARCH ^(.+?)( *)\|

REPLACE \2\1\x20

Click, ONCE, on the Replace All button

Et voilà !!! Nice, isn’t it ?

We get the final list , below :

          Nancy Allen
           Jana Bouskova
          Alice Chalifoux
          Pearl Chertok
         Elaine Christy
          Osian Ellis
        Vincent Fanelli
        Sidonie Goossens
         Marcel Grandjany
       Alphonse Hasselmans
      Elizabeth Hainen DePeters
         Pierre Jamet
        Yolanda Kondonassis
 Johann Baptist Krumpholtz
         Lucile Lawrence
         Susann McDonald
François Joseph Naderman
     Jean Henri Naderman
          Şirin Pancaroğlu
          Laura Peperara
           Edna Phillips
            Ann Hobson Pilot
     Anna-Maria Ravnopolska-Dean
         Casper Reardon
      Henriette Renié
         Marisa Robles
         Victor Salvi
         Carlos Salzedo
         Marcel Tournier
         Sylvia Woods
        Aristid Von Würtzler
        Nicanor Zabaleta

Note :

In the Replacement part, you may change the single space (\x20), between forenames and names, by anything you would like to ! For instance, \2\1 - ( two spaces + one dash + two spaces )

Now, let’s suppose that we, already, got the list of the 32 names, with their forenames, as below :

Nancy Allen
Jana Bouskova
Alice Chalifoux
Pearl Chertok
Elaine Christy
Osian Ellis
Vincent Fanelli
Sidonie Goossens
Marcel Grandjany
Alphonse Hasselmans
Elizabeth Hainen DePeters
Pierre Jamet
Yolanda Kondonassis
Johann Baptist Krumpholtz
Lucile Lawrence
Susann McDonald
François Joseph Naderman
Jean Henri Naderman
Şirin Pancaroğlu
Laura Peperara
Edna Phillips
Ann Hobson Pilot
Anna-Maria Ravnopolska-Dean
Casper Reardon
Henriette Renié
Marisa Robles
Victor Salvi
Carlos Salzedo
Marcel Tournier
Sylvia Woods
Aristid Von Würtzler
Nicanor Zabaleta

First of all, we had to change aspace with the PIPE character |, to separate the forename part, on the left, from the name part, on the right. This action still needs human’s brain, NOT regexes, unfortunately :-(( So, our list becomes :

Nancy|Allen
Jana|Bouskova
Alice|Chalifoux
Pearl|Chertok
Elaine|Christy
Osian|Ellis
Vincent|Fanelli
Sidonie|Goossens
Marcel|Grandjany
Alphonse|Hasselmans
Elizabeth|Hainen DePeters
Pierre|Jamet
Yolanda|Kondonassis
Johann Baptist|Krumpholtz
Lucile|Lawrence
Susann|McDonald
François Joseph|Naderman
Jean Henri|Naderman
Şirin|Pancaroğlu
Laura|Peperara
Edna|Phillips
Ann|Hobson Pilot
Anna-Maria|Ravnopolska-Dean
Casper|Reardon
Henriette|Renié
Marisa|Robles
Victor|Salvi
Carlos|Salzedo
Marcel|Tournier
Sylvia|Woods
Aristid|Von Würtzler
Nicanor|Zabaleta

Now, the different steps are almost the same ones as above. As we’ll use the same value of M, these are :

Recopy this modified list in a NEW tab
Perform the first S/R, TWICE :

SEARCH ^[^|\r\n]+[^ |]\K($|\|)|^.{15}\K +

REPLACE (?1 |) ( 15 spaces, between the (?1 and |) strings

Perform the third S/R, ONCE :

SEARCH ^(.+?)( *)\|

REPLACE \2\1\x20

Note : In this case, the second S/R, above, is NOT used

We, again, get the final list below :

          Nancy Allen
           Jana Bouskova
          Alice Chalifoux
          Pearl Chertok
         Elaine Christy
          Osian Ellis
        Vincent Fanelli
        Sidonie Goossens
         Marcel Grandjany
       Alphonse Hasselmans
      Elizabeth Hainen DePeters
         Pierre Jamet
        Yolanda Kondonassis
 Johann Baptist Krumpholtz
         Lucile Lawrence
         Susann McDonald
François Joseph Naderman
     Jean Henri Naderman
          Şirin Pancaroğlu
          Laura Peperara
           Edna Phillips
            Ann Hobson Pilot
     Anna-Maria Ravnopolska-Dean
         Casper Reardon
      Henriette Renié
         Marisa Robles
         Victor Salvi
         Carlos Salzedo
         Marcel Tournier
         Sylvia Woods
        Aristid Von Würtzler
        Nicanor Zabaleta

Best regards,

guy038

Claudia Frank

Hi guy038,

puuuhh, wow, excellent.
You know I love python script and I guess this script can do it almost the same, can’t it?

i = 0               # LengthOfBiggestString
list_of_names = []

def find_biggest_string(cont, l_num, tot_lines): 
    global i
    if len(cont) > i:
        i = len(cont)
    list_of_names.append(cont)

editor.forEachLine(find_biggest_string) 

editor.clearAll()

for name in list_of_names:
    name_parts = name.split(' ')
    firstname = name_parts[0]
    lastname = ' '.join(name_parts[1:])
    console.write('{0:>{1}} {2}'.format(firstname,i, lastname))
    editor.appendText('{0:>{1}} {2}'.format(firstname,i, lastname))

Cheers
Claudia

guy038

Hello, Claudia,

Yes, you’re absolutely right ! I should have a try of this powerful plugin, taking some time to fully study it, instead of jumping from one N++ version to another one, rather using basic features !

I also saw your detailed reply to pwnotepaduser, from :

https://notepad-plus-plus.org/community/topic/10882/feature-request-copy-line-with-number/6

Everyone can notice that very few lines, of that scripting tool, are enough to get a complete new feature, from inside N++ :-)

However, I, sometimes, find hard to get back to “real life”, while using N++. So, I’m just afraid it would be worse, using the Python Script plugin, which can help everyone to really customize its own Notepad++ ! Of course, I’m a bit joking… but not only !

BTW, I haven’t heard of you, on N++ forums, for quite a long time. So, it’s nice that you’re back again ! And, thanks for the active and valuable support you give to many N++ users :-))

Cheers,

guy038

Claudia Frank

Hi guy038,

thank you for your kind words. You’re right, I was a bit lazy in the past.
Mainly in the virtual world, real life was/is stressful enough ;-)

It’s nice to see that you are still having that patience to answer in such
elaborated way. Astonishing. Is there anything you can’t do with RegEx? ;-)
Maybe cooking??

Keep your good mood.

Cheers
Claudia

guy038

Hi, Claudia,

No, no, you’re wrong about regexes ! Of course, cooking is possible with regexes : See, below, that wonderful cake, only made of special regex characters, except for the regular slash !!!

•-------------------------------------------------------------•
|                                                             |
|                            {+}                              |
|                    \      ({^})       \                     |
|          /        / )      \ /       / )    {^}             |
|         ( \      | /       .|.      | /    ({+})            |
|          \ |     .|.       | |      .|.     \ /             |
|          .|.     | |       | |      | |     .|.             |
|          | |     | |       | |      | |     | |             |
|          | |     | |+*****+| |+****+| |     | |             |
|          | |+***+| |       | |      | |+***+| |             |
|        +*| |     | |                | |     | |+***+        |
|       +  | |     | |                | |     | |     +       |
|      *           | |    H  A  P  P  Y       | |      *      |
|      | *         | |                               * |      |
|      |  +***+        R  E  G  E  X  E  S  !   +***+  |      |
|      |$      +********+             +********+      $|      |
|      | $   $           +***********+           $   $ |      |
|      |  $ $ $    $                       $    $ $ $  |      |
|      |       $ $  $      $       $      $ $ $        |      |
|       +            $ $ $  $     $ $ $ $             +       |
|         +***+              $   $              +***+         |
|              +********+     $ $     +********+              |
|                        +***********+                        |
|                                                             |
•-------------------------------------------------------------•

And, as we’re near Christmas time, let’s have, now, the candle’s flames animated :

Copy / Paste that delicious cake in a new tab
Open the Replace dialog ( CTRL + H )
Set the Regular expression search mode
Check, preferably, the Wrap around option
Don’t care about the other options !
Fill up the Search and Replace zones :

SEARCH ( \ )|( / ) )|( | / )|({^})|( / )|( ( \ )|( \ | )|({+})

REPLACE (?1 / )(?2 ( \ )(?3 \ | )(?4{+})(?5 \ )(?6 / ) )(?7 | / )(?8{^})
Click on the Replace All button, repeatedly ( or press the ALT + A shortcut, for a quicker switch )

Et voilà ! Like kids, you’re quite filled with wonder, aren’t you ?

Of course ( as I’m certainly better in regexes than in drawing and painting ! ), I didn’t create this image. I just took the general frame, from a French site, about ASCII-Art, at the address below :

http://www.ascii-fr.com/-Anniversaire-.html

Best Regards,

guy038

Claudia Frank

LOL LOL LOL LOL

Brilliant, I really tried it and had a lot of fun with it.
I even felt the heat :-D

So next time I have guests I serve coffee,
put a laptop on the table and let them choose a slice :-D

Hmm, so I have to think about a pythonish way. ;-)

Cheers
Claudia

guy038

Hi, Claudia,

Give a second try to my regex, because I slightly modified the cake and I needed to put the Search and Replace regexes like pure code, with black background, in order that consecutive space characters are NOT compacted in one space !

Otherwise, the regexes DON’T give the goods results !

Cheers,

guy038

Claudia Frank

Hi guy038,

beautiful. So I don’t play spider solitare anymore
but will watch burning cake :-D

Cheers
Claudia