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    • motreoM
      motreo @motreo
      last edited by

      @terry-r - one more thing I just noticed. When I export the transcript directly to Notepad++, I get a version with just ‘LF’. If I export it to another app first, like Windows notepad, and then copy and paste into Notepad++, I get a version with ‘CRLF’.

      Alan KilbornA 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • Terry RT
        Terry R @motreo
        last edited by Terry R

        @motreo said in New user having trouble getting line/blank operations to work:

        When I select show all characters, the only characters that appear are ‘LF’, scattered throughout the transcript at the beginning and end of each sentence

        Interesting, thanks for the images. I can see straight away that the file you are using (transcript) is recognized as a Unix style file due to ONLY having LF control characters at the end of each line.
        Secondly you will see some spaces amongst the words have a red dot, that’s the way a space is shown when using the “show characters” option. That means the other spaces aren’t the standard space character. Possibly they are a “non-breaking space”.

        I think the reason you are having issues is that the line functions you are using expect certain characters, which they then join through, or remove. Your transcript file doesn’t fit that format hence the issue you are having.

        As you found out when typing your own test you created a windows file, one that uses the CR (carriage return) and LF (line feed) characters to denote the end of a line.

        In our FAQ section is a post called Formatting Forum Posts. Read that and post the same example via that method. That allows us to further investigate what the spaces really are. It will be possible to create a regex (regular expression) which will do what you need as obviously the built-in functions will not.

        Terry

        I think Windows Notepad assumes there must be CR and LF denoting end of lines so converts the file to that standard. Then when you copy from there to Notepad++ you get the expected CRLF characters.

        motreoM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • guy038G
          guy038
          last edited by guy038

          Hello, @motreo, @terry-r and All,

          @motreo :

          May be I should wait a bit for a new post, from you, containing raw text, in reverse video but I suppose that the following regex S/R should solve your problem !

          • Open the Replace dialog ( Ctrl + H )

            • SEARCH (\R){3,}|(\R){1,2}

              • REPLACE (?1\r\n\r\n)?2\x20    if the line endings must be CRLF, after replacement
            • OR

              • REPLACE (?1\n\n)?2\x20    if the line endings must be LF, after replacement

              • Untick all box options

              • Tick the Wrap around option

              • Select the Regular expression search mode

              • Click once on the Replace All button or several times, till the end of process, on the Replace button

              • Hit the ESC button to close the Replace dialog


          Note : the advantage of this method is that, whatever the line ending of each line of your INPUT text, your OUTPUT text will always have normalized line endings ;-))

          Best Regards

          guy038

          motreoM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • Alan KilbornA
            Alan Kilborn @motreo
            last edited by Alan Kilborn

            @motreo said in New user having trouble getting line/blank operations to work:

            When I export the transcript directly to Notepad++, I get a version with just ‘LF’. If I export it to another app first, like Windows notepad, and then copy and paste into Notepad++, I get a version with ‘CRLF’.

            First, there is no “export…to Notepad++”.
            If you are copying and pasting (which I presume from the rest of your statement), then say that, don’t talk of “export”.

            If you paste into Notepad++ using Ctrl+v some data you’ve copied from a non-Notepad++ source, your line-endings (e.g. LF) will remain however they exist in the source.

            The default for Notepad++ new files – like the one you got from when you said:

            If I open a blank note and start typing, blank lines added by hitting enter look different

            is to have CRLF line-endings. You can see this in the status bar of Notepad++:

            cc1ee44f-6a03-4af6-9e05-017d91a3cbe8-image.png

            You have to decide what you want to end up with for the line-endings, LF or CRLF. You may not know enough to make a good choice; in that case go with CRLF.

            When pasting into Notepad++, Notepad++ can “correct” your line-endings at the time of paste if you use the Edit menu’s Paste command rather than Ctrl+v. This is somewhat of a “quirk” of Notepad++ and further discussion of it as a possible bug is found HERE.

            motreoM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
            • motreoM
              motreo @guy038
              last edited by

              @guy038 Thanks so much for taking a stab at this!

              For both of the options you listed, I unchecked the Transparency box and selected Wrap around and Regular expression.

              I tried the second option (REPLACE (?1\n\n)?2\x20) first, on the version of the transcript with LF line endings, and it didn’t work unfortunately. I copied and pasted the transcript into a new note, though, which converted the line endings to CRLF and then tried the first option (REPLACE (?1\r\n\r\n)?2\x20). That one worked almost perfectly, save for two things: (1) everything was merged into one long paragraph instead of keeping paragraph breaks in the places where there are two blank lines, and (2) there are some extra spaces in between words. It looks like this:

              Imagine the day a civilization discovers the   starry night sky above contains billions of  billions of worlds awaiting their arrival.   Now imagine the day they realize  those voyages will never be made.   So earlier this week we were talking about Kessler  Syndrome, collision cascades around planets that
              

              If I select Show all characters, you can see places where there are non-standard spaces (Terry pointed this out to me). Here’s a screenshot.

              2022-02-15 13_21_18-_new 4 - Notepad++.png

              In the Replace dialog, I’m able to replace two blank spaces with a single blank space using search and replace. If I try doing the same thing using three blank spaces in the ‘Find what’ box, however, then it doesn’t work. Highlighting all the text in the transcript and selecting ‘Trim Leading and Trailing Space’ before running any expressions doesn’t seem to impact whether superfluous spaces are left in the transcript after running your Regex expression.

              Do you have a sense of how to convert three blank spaces to one blank space using search and replace, as well as maintain paragraph breaks where two empty lines would be? This probably has something to do with those non-standard spaces Terry pointed out, but I don’t know anything about that.

              Please let me know if I didn’t explain things well. Thanks again for taking the time to help me!

              Alan KilbornA 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • Alan KilbornA
                Alan Kilborn @motreo
                last edited by Alan Kilborn

                @motreo said in New user having trouble getting line/blank operations to work:

                non-standard spaces

                Hmm, smells like some non-U+0020 space character, of which there are probably a few varieties. You do know about Unicode, right? Very likely these are non-breaking space characters. U+00A0.

                motreoM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • motreoM
                  motreo @Terry R
                  last edited by

                  @terry-r Thanks for explaining things further. Here’s a screenshot of some text showing where dots are placed:

                  2022-02-15 13_35_18-AppData_Local_Temp_.png

                  This is what it looks like after running the regex expression guy038 recommended to me (copy text from transcript with LF endings, paste into new note so endings are converted into CRLF, Ctrl + H, SEARCH (\R){3,}|(\R){1,2}, REPLACE (?1\r\n\r\n)?2\x20):

                  2022-02-15 13_21_18-_new 4 - Notepad++.png

                  Even after running that regex expression, extra spaces (either two or three) are left in between various words. Selecting ‘Trim Leading and Trailing Space’ doesn’t make a difference, whether I do it before or after running the regex expression.

                  Terry RT 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • motreoM
                    motreo @Alan Kilborn
                    last edited by

                    @alan-kilborn I don’t know anything about Unicode. Is there a way to get rid of these non-breaking space characters?

                    Alan KilbornA 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • motreoM
                      motreo @Alan Kilborn
                      last edited by

                      @alan-kilborn

                      First, there is no “export…to Notepad++”.
                      If you are copying and pasting (which I presume from the rest of your statement), then say that, don’t talk of “export”.

                      Sorry, export wasn’t the right word to use. What I meant is that when I go to save the file from its source (downsub.com), I get a transcript with LF endings if I choose Open with Notepad++.

                      Alan KilbornA 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • Alan KilbornA
                        Alan Kilborn @motreo
                        last edited by Alan Kilborn

                        @motreo said in New user having trouble getting line/blank operations to work:

                        export wasn’t the right word to use. What I meant is that when I go to save the file from its source (downsub.com), I get a transcript with LF endings if I choose Open with Notepad++.

                        Well maybe export was the right word! :-)

                        The saving of the file by whatever is saving it is doing so to a Linux file format. No problem for Notepad++, but as a user of the data, you have to know if you want to keep it in Linux format, or change it over to Windows format.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                        • Alan KilbornA
                          Alan Kilborn @motreo
                          last edited by

                          @motreo said in New user having trouble getting line/blank operations to work:

                          Is there a way to get rid of these non-breaking space characters?

                          Probably should confirm it first. Do a regular expression search for \xa0 and see if it matches the suspect spaces.

                          motreoM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                          • Terry RT
                            Terry R @motreo
                            last edited by

                            @motreo said in New user having trouble getting line/blank operations to work:

                            @terry-r Thanks for explaining things further. Here’s a screenshot of some text showing where dots are placed:

                            At this point I think you REALLY need to provide examples in the format I requested (read that FAQ post). We need actual text to work on to help you. Images do not show the information, so we are only guessing (informed guesses they might be).

                            Your issue is certainly fixable, just need the “real text”.

                            Terry

                            Alan KilbornA 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                            • Alan KilbornA
                              Alan Kilborn @Terry R
                              last edited by

                              @terry-r said in New user having trouble getting line/blank operations to work:

                              At this point I think you REALLY need to provide examples in the format I requested (read that FAQ post). We need actual text

                              I think OP tried to do this, when he said:

                              effbfe1c-4f4a-4502-94d4-d0bacbc1331c-image.png

                              I copied and pasted this text but the spaces all seemed to be “normal”. :-(

                              PeterJonesP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                              • PeterJonesP
                                PeterJones @Alan Kilborn
                                last edited by PeterJones

                                @alan-kilborn said in New user having trouble getting line/blank operations to work:

                                I copied and pasted this text but the spaces all seemed to be “normal”. :-(

                                Apparently another quirk of the forum. If I copy/paste from there, or View Source on the webpage, the starry just has normal spaces. If I use my moderator powers to “edit” the post (don’t worry, @motreo , I didn’t save my edits), and copy from the original post, it’s actually the\xA0\xA0\x20starry. So yes, there are two NBSP (\xA0) in between those words.

                                So @motreo, you do have fancy spaces. I recommend you just do a search for \xA0 and replace with \x20, which will replace all NBSP with normal spaces.

                                (We regulars will have to try to remember that even the text boxes can edit some characters, including the backslash-[ and NBSP)

                                motreoM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
                                • Alan KilbornA
                                  Alan Kilborn @motreo
                                  last edited by

                                  @motreo said in New user having trouble getting line/blank operations to work:

                                  I don’t know anything about Unicode

                                  This may be a problem on a bigger scale, given what you seem to be doing. Maybe best to go off and do some learning.

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                  • motreoM
                                    motreo @Alan Kilborn
                                    last edited by

                                    @alan-kilborn that’s it - all the spaces where there isn’t any dot are highlighted when doing a search for \xa0

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • motreoM
                                      motreo @PeterJones
                                      last edited by

                                      @peterjones I recommend you just do a search for \xA0 and replace with \x20, which will replace all NBSP with normal spaces.

                                      Worked like a charm! And allows me to get rid of those extra spaces using search/replace :)

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                      • motreoM
                                        motreo
                                        last edited by

                                        This post is deleted!
                                        motreoM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • motreoM
                                          motreo @motreo
                                          last edited by

                                          @guy038 Per the recommendation of @peterjones, I got rid of all the funky non-normal blank spaces by replacing \xa0 with \x20. Now that I’m left with a transcript with CRLF line endings and only normal blank spaces, do you know what expression can be used to join only consecutive lines + lines separated by a single blank line?

                                          PeterJonesP Terry RT 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • PeterJonesP
                                            PeterJones @motreo
                                            last edited by PeterJones

                                            @motreo ,

                                            single spaced
                                            will be joined
                                            
                                            as will double-spaced
                                            
                                            
                                            but not triple spaced
                                            
                                            • FIND = (?<![\r\n])(\R){1,2}(?!\R)
                                            • REPLACE = \x20
                                            • REPLACE ALL

                                            This says “for matches that don’t have a \r or \n before it, match 1 or 2 newline sequences, which aren’t followed by a newline” and “replace with a space”. This will collapse lines that are single spaced or double spaced into one line, but triple spaced or wider will be left unedited.

                                            This is just one solution that seems to fit your description. TIMTOWTDI.

                                            ----

                                            Useful References

                                            • Please Read Before Posting
                                            • Template for Search/Replace Questions
                                            • FAQ: Where to find regular expressions (regex) documentation
                                            • Notepad++ Online User Manual: Searching/Regex
                                            motreoM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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