Auto-setting Sentences to Next Line

[Erdrix]

My title probably makes no sense, but I'm a dingus and and can't think of a better one.

What I'm thinking is, I use replace text quit a bit to find a fix common PDF formating weirdness. Like 's' having a space before it like this 'dog s', so I use replace text to find all those instances a replace them without have to scan each line myself.

I usually place each sentence in a paragraph on its own line, so I can quickly format a bunch of them before placing it in its own snippets.

My idea is to allow the Replace tool to look for all periods, which it already can do, and all you to replace it with something like "PERIOD-SPACE-ENTER", which would keep the period and place the next sentence on the next line. This would eliminate the need to have to scan every paragraph for new sentences.

Does that even make sense?

[Vargr]

Yes, it does make sense.

Alas, PDFs are formatted in many different ways - most of them in a helpless and inconsistent way, including weird spaces etc.

Probably your best bet is to copy the PDF into a proper text editor such as notepad++, format the text there and paste it in RW.

Bothersome, I know.

[ShadowChemosh]

Isn't that the purpose of CTRL-ALT-V? That was made to paste text from a PDF and remove all those crazy PDF issues. I use it all the time from Paizo products and it works great.

[Parody]

Paste Special (Ctrl-Alt-V) won't help here. It won't add paragraphs for you and removing formatting doesn't remove extra spaces in text. You just end up with text with no formatting that still has a space where you didn't want one.

ObTopic: What you get back out of a PDF depends highly on what was used to make the PDF and what you're using to view it. If you have a problem PDF, then I'd also recommend using something else to fix the text. Notepad++ is good once you get familiar with it, but you might have an editor you use already that would work well. I wouldn't mind the Find/Replace function being more capable, but for now you work with what you have.

[kbs666]

I've been doing a lot of copy pasting from PDF's to RW. ctrl-alt-V works great to get the line breaks out of the paragraphs and other weirdness. Just copy the text one paragraph at a time. You're still going to have to fix it up if there are any actual problems like extra spaces but that is a problem inside the PDF. You can go the extra step of going to something like notepad++ which will visually notify you of most of these problems but you'll still need to fix them manually.

As to what the op wants, that is pretty trivial in something like notepad++ but not sure how it solves the problem he describes. Is he really putting every sentence in its own snippet?

[Silveras]

Originally Posted by kbs666

I've been doing a lot of copy pasting from PDF's to RW. ctrl-alt-V works great to get the line breaks out of the paragraphs and other weirdness. Just copy the text one paragraph at a time. You're still going to have to fix it up if there are any actual problems like extra spaces but that is a problem inside the PDF. You can go the extra step of going to something like notepad++ which will visually notify you of most of these problems but you'll still need to fix them manually.

As to what the op wants, that is pretty trivial in something like notepad++ but not sure how it solves the problem he describes. Is he really putting every sentence in its own snippet?

Well, this is part of what Liz was talking about in the first Spotlight article. RealmWorks is NOT a print medium, so layout that works for print (and PDF, in this sense, is part of print) doesn't necessarily work well for RealmWorks.

For example, if the print/PDF version of an adventure has a section ... say about an enemy... like

Originally Posted by Example

Henry was raised in a small log cabin by his poor family. They ate poorly during his childhood, which stunted his growth and left him at 4' 9" tall. Unable to purchase new clothing, he was forced to wear his sisters' hand-me-down clothing, which left him embittered about women. He attacks female targets in preference to male targets, and can be provoked into attacking by taunts related to being "girly", or with references to his height. Henry can be bribed to let the PCs pass his guard post for XXX money.

So... I count 10 "facts":

• Family was poor.
• Raised in a log cabin.
• Poor nutrition stunted his growth.
• Is 4 ft 9 in tall.
• Wore sisters' hand-me-down clothes as a child.
• Embittered about women.
• Targets females in preference to males.
• Can be provoked by being called "girly".
• Can be provoked by references to height.
• Can be bribed to let the PCs pass his guard post for XXX money.

Each of these could be learned separately by the PCs, and some of which should be learned separately from other facts, if at all (the bribe, for example, probably should be in a GM Directions snippet that cannot be revealed). So they should probably be broken out into separate snippets in RealmWorks, to allow separate revelation of each. This will be especially true when per-character revelation is in use, and each PC could have learned different parts of this information, but no one has it all (yet).

The paragraph format that works for print gives away too much information at once if revealed, so the process of conversion should include some thought as to how to re-format the content to better suit the new medium... RealmWorks.

Note that I am not saying this to support the auto-splitting idea.. I don't think I like that much automation, as it is specific to one style of conversion/working and maybe doesn't work as well for others.

[Gord]

While I normally wouldn't use the auto-splitting in that way and I find cntrl A V works well enough, I would love to have another option or two as choices. It would be nice if they could be set as a default or tied to another key combination. For me, I would love to be able to modify the "remove formatting and save as a single paragraph" to "remove all formatting except paragraph breaks". I could also see the use of each sentence being an optional break point as well but I think the paragraph break point is a more natural one for most people.

[Parody]

Originally Posted by Gord

For me, I would love to be able to modify the "remove formatting and save as a single paragraph" to "remove all formatting except paragraph breaks".

This is easy enough: Clear Text Formatting or (if coming from outside) Paste Special/Unformatted Text. There just isn't an accelerator for it.

I'd still like them to add Ctrl-Shift-V as Paste Plain Text (same as Paste Special/Unformatted Text); it matches the accelerator from other programs.


Going back to Silveras' example: many campaigns will only rarely need to have a character's information broken up in that fashion. If you're not having your characters do a long investigation, it's probably not necessary. (It's about knowing your campaign's needs, so figure out how much work you need to do beforehand. :)

[Gord]

I agree it can be done currently using several different methods. I just want to save steps.

[Silveras]

Originally Posted by Parody

Going back to Silveras' example: many campaigns will only rarely need to have a character's information broken up in that fashion. If you're not having your characters do a long investigation, it's probably not necessary. (It's about knowing your campaign's needs, so figure out how much work you need to do beforehand. :)

I suppose that depends on what you are converting. I find myself constantly breaking paragraphs into individual snippets, as in my example, when converting published adventures. Less so when converting setting sourcebooks.