Semi-space in NP++

[JamesWebb]

Is it possible to insert a semi-space in Notepad++? Pressing Shift+Space inserts “ZWNJ” instead of semi-space.

[Alan Kilborn]

@JamesWebb

Possibly. What exactly IS a semi-space?

[mkupper]

@JamesWebb

Here are the space characters that are available in Unicode and thus Notepad++. Not all of these are available in ANSI encoded text files. Which one do you think is a “semi-space?”

I don’t think this forum supports table formatted data and so I’ll explain the columns here:

1. The space between ~ tidle characters so you can see how wide it is.
2. The character value in decimal.
3. The character value in hexadecimal or the HTML entity name if available.
4. How to search for this value using Notepad++ regexp mode.
5. Comments or notes on the name of the character. The all-upper-case parts are the Unicode name and the lower-case stuff is my own comments.
   ~ ~     \x{0020} SPACE
   ~ ~     \x{00A0} NO-BREAK SPACE
   ~ ~     \x{2002} EN SPACE (nut; half an em)
   ~ ~     \x{2003} EM SPACE (mutton; nominally, a space equal to the type size in points; may scale by the condensation factor of a font)
   ~ ~     \x{2004} THREE-PER-EM SPACE (thick space)
   ~ ~     \x{2005} FOUR-PER-EM SPACE (mid space)
   ~ ~     \x{2006} SIX-PER-EM SPACE (in computer typography sometimes equated to thin space)
   ~ ~     \x{2007} FIGURE SPACE (space equal to tabular width of a font; this is equivalent to the digit width of fonts with fixed-width digits)
   ~ ~     \x{2008} PUNCTUATION SPACE (space equal to narrow punctuation of a font)
   ~ ~     \x{2009} THIN SPACE (a fifth of an em (or sometimes a sixth))
   ~ ~     \x{200A} HAIR SPACE (thinner than a thin space; in traditional typography, the thinnest space available)
   ~​~ ​ ​ \x{200B}ZERO WIDTH SPACE (​ commonly abbreviated ZWSP; this character is intended for invisible word separation and for line break control; it has no width, but its presence between two characters does not prevent increased letter spacing in justification)
   ~ ~     \x{202F} NARROW NO-BREAK SPACE (commonly abbreviated NNBSP; a narrow form of a no-break space, typically the width of a thin space or a mid space)
   ~ ~     \x{205F} MEDIUM MATHEMATICAL SPACE (abbreviated MMSP; four-eighteenths of an em)
   ~　~ 　 　 \x{3000} IDEOGRAPHIC SPACE
   ~〿~ 〿 〿 \x{303F} IDEOGRAPHIC HALF FILL SPACE
   ~~   \x{FEFF} ZERO WIDTH NO-BREAK SPACE

[Terry R]

@mkupper
Bravo!
That seems to be have been quite a bit of investigation. I never knew there were so many ways to defining 2 words (I mean the space between which does define 2 words!).

I initially was going to ask the OP how he got the characters he did by using Shift+Space(bar) as I just get a normal space (x20).

Terry

[Alan Kilborn]

@Terry-R said in Semi-space in NP++:

I initially was going to ask the OP how he got the characters he did by using Shift+Space(bar) as I just get a normal space (x20).

That’s a good point. I’d be willing to bet that OP didn’t get that with a Shift+Space press; he just thinks he did.

[Alan Kilborn]

@mkupper said in Semi-space in NP++:

I don’t think this forum supports table formatted data

It does! (At least, simple tabling)

[mkupper]

@Terry-R I’m guessing the person has a keyboard shortcut as I too get a normal \x20 space when I use shift-space.

@JamesWebb Notepad++ normally does nothing special when people use Shift-Spacebar. Let’s see how your copy of Notepad++ is configured.

• In Notepad++ go to Settings / Shortcut mapper
• Enter spacebar (type out the letters s-p-a-c-e-b-a-r) in the filter box at the bottom.
• Now flip through the tabs at the top from Main menu, Macros, Run command, etc.

On my copy of Notepad++ only three shortcuts use spacebar as part of their definition. For example, Main menu tab has Ctrl+Shift+Spacebar assigned to Function Parameters Hint.

Do you have a shortcut for Shift-Spacebar listed in any of the tabs? If so, we can investigate that further while also figuring out what a “semi-space” is and then adding a new shortcut that will generate a semi-space using whatever keystroke you want using the same method that your copy of Notepad++ uses to support Shift-Spacebar.

If you did not find any Notepad++ shortcuts besides the normal ones that ship with Notepad++ then it’s likely you have a Windows add-on or setting of some sort that handles shift-spacebar. I would confirm that by putting a shift-space in a test file using plain Notepad (not Notepad++) and then seeing what’s in the test file.

[mkupper]

@Alan-Kilborn said in Semi-space in NP++:

@mkupper said in Semi-space in NP++:

I don’t think this forum supports table formatted data

It does! (At least, simple tabling)

I had looked at https://spec.commonmark.org/0.30/ and tried

<table>
<tr><th>header1</th><th>header2</th></tr>
<tr><td>row 1 col 1</td><td>row 1 col 2</td></tr>
<tr><td>row 2 col 1</td><td>row 2 col 2</td></tr>
</table>

It seems well formed but I’m only seeing the raw HTML in the preview pane.

[Coises]

@Alan-Kilborn said in Semi-space in NP++:

I’d be willing to bet that OP didn’t get that with a Shift+Space press; he just thinks he did.

There are keyboard layouts (reference ) which generate a Zero Width Non-Joiner from Shift+space.

[Alan Kilborn]

@mkupper :

At least, simple tabling

| Tables        | Are           | Cool  |
| ------------- |:-------------:| -----:|
| col 3 is      | right-aligned | $1600 |
| col 2 is      | centered      |   $12 |
| zebra stripes | are neat      |    $1 |

produces:

Tables	Are	Cool
col 3 is	right-aligned	$1600
col 2 is	centered	$12
zebra stripes	are neat	$1

[Mark Olson]

@Alan-Kilborn
This is such a nice, compact example of how to make Markdown tables that I think it might make sense for @PeterJones to add it to the Formatting Forum Posts FAQ.

Of course, I understand that that FAQ isn’t really meant to be a comprehensive guide to Markdown, and therefore it might make sense to omit it for the sake of conciseness.

[gerdb42]

I think what the OP got is this: , a Zero Width Non-Joiner (&#x200C). And this matches what @Coises has mentioned here.

@JamesWebb: These black-boxed items show characters that are invisible otherwise if you have “Show All Characters” ( ) checked in the toolbar. Do not confuse this with the literal text “ZWNJ”.

[JamesWebb]

I want to clarify that when I mentioned the need for spacing in Persian language, I was not referring to em/en space. In Persian, which is a right-to-left (RTL) language, we use semi-space to indicate that two words are closer to each other than a normal space (Spacebar) would suggest, yet they do not touch each other. This is not an issue when using MS Notepad or Office Word.

I have a screenshot and a screen recording of the issue that occurs when I press Shift+Space. Unfortunately, I cannot share the link due to my zero reputation.

The SS link (just replace “[dot]” with “.” ):
ibb[dot]co/X4H3qPG

[rdipardo]

According to this issue on the Windows user forum, as well as this issue with another open source editor, the expected behaviour of the Persian IME keyboard is to insert a ZWNJ character when Shift+Space or Shift+B are pressed. The title of the Windows issue refers to “‘half-space’ or ZWNJ”, so they are actually the same thing.

Notepad++ is correctly receiving a ZWNJ as input from the keyboard. It was decided in version 8.5.3 to display boxed annotations of non-printing Unicode characters by default — which admittedly favours writers of source code, who need to be aware of every character in the file. MS Word doesn’t do this by default since it’s more attuned to presenting documents as they will look on paper.

If you don’t want to see the annotations, go to the View menu, then the Show Symbol submenu, and make sure that Show Non-Printing Characters does not have a check mark, as suggested already.

[JamesWebb]

@ rdipardo

It was decided in version 8.5.3 to display boxed annotations of non-printing Unicode characters by default

Yes! I didn’t have it before, it appears in recent (NP++) updates.
Thanks. It worked.

[PeterJones]

@Mark-Olson said in Semi-space in NP++:

I think it might make sense for @PeterJones to add it to the Formatting Forum Posts FAQ.

Sorry, I guess since I used that table-technique throughout the FAQ, and even posted screenshots of source code which produces such a table, and posted links to other Markdown resources, it hadn’t struck me that I’d never mentioned there was, in fact, a table syntax. But I suppose I could add an explicit mention.

—
Update: Done. I have added “Tables” to the FAQ.

[guy038]

Hello, @jameswebb, @alan-kilborn, @mkupper, @terry-r, @Coises, @mark-olson, @gerdb42, @rdipardo and All,

May be, I did not understand all that topic very clearly but, to my mind, it seems easy to bound the ZWNJ character to the Shift + Spacebar shortcut !

You just have to create a new macro :

---

So :

• Start Notepad++ and click on the ¶ button of the ToolBar

• Open your active shortcuts.xml file within N++

• Right before the </macros> line, insert this new macro :

        <Macro name="ZWNJ (Semi Space)" Ctrl="no" Alt="no" Shift="yes" Key="32">
            <Action type="1" message="2170" wParam="0" lParam="0" sParam="‌" />
        </Macro>

Note : Although not visible, there is a ZWNJ character between the two double-quotes de sParam !

• Save the modifications of the shortcut.xml file ( Ctrl + S )

• Close the shortcut.xml file ( Ctrl + W )

• Exit N++ ( Alt + F4 )

• Restart N++

Here you are ! Now, each time you use the Shift + Spacebar shortcut, it will insert a zero Width Non Joiner character, at caret location, even if the Caps Lock key is set ;-))

Best Regards,

guy038

[JamesWebb]

@ guy038

You just have to create a new macro

Thank you for providing the macro. The solution was already present, but I wasn’t aware of it.
View menu>Show Symbol submenu> turn off Show Non-Printing Characters