Replacing a single letter

neilrh · 09-12-2019, 11:33 AM

Hello,
I'm using Sigil to edit a book which has many single T's instead of I's.
example : (T will not) instead of the correct (I will not).

Can anyone help me as to what to I need to enter in the find box to select a single T rather than t as part of a word.

Thank you
Neil

Tex2002ans · 09-12-2019, 12:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by neilrh

I'm using Sigil to edit a book which has many single T's instead of I's.
example : (T will not) instead of the correct (I will not).

Can anyone help me as to what to I need to enter in the find box to select a single T rather than t as part of a word.

Two easy ways of doing it:

1. Tools > Spellcheck > Spellcheck. Use the "Search" box up top to search for T, and use the "Change Selected Word To" box on the right side to change it to I.

2. Search > Find & Replace. Search for "SPACE + T + SPACE". Replace with "SPACE + I + SPACE". Then do another search for many other edge cases.

I would personally go with #1, because it's easy, and because you'll probably spot lots of other "T" typos as well.

theducks · 09-12-2019, 01:36 PM

Tex
I don't think #1 works with single letter words.

Code:

([“"\s]*)T\s

This is a little fancier
tests for either of 2 types of quotes or space, then a single T followed by a space
the capture allows replacement (I never got use of look behind down pat

)

Code:

\1I

<remember the following space

Tex2002ans · 09-12-2019, 02:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theducks

I don't think #1 works with single letter words.

It works. I tested it before responding to make sure. It'll also be more robust than trying to do multiple sets of Find/Replace/Regex... because looking just for spaces around the letter would miss more obscure edge cases like:

—T—
T
[...]

where the spellcheck would catch it.

theducks · 09-12-2019, 02:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

It works. I tested it before responding to make sure.

I wonder if there is a setting I messed up a long time ago. I've only had it find words with wrong letters (or case in the middle).
Anyway. The OP has solutions either way

DiapDealer · 09-12-2019, 03:09 PM

Code:

\b(T)\b

in regex mode should catch most cases (replace with I).

Nothing's going to be perfect--like if there's markup dividing an actual word, for instance (not that I can think of any good reason why there should be).

But it should catch things like:

"T want to know."

or

There but for the grace of god go T.

But it will fail, if say, there's some dialog that attempts to simulate someone stuttering. Like:

"I want T-T-T-T-To know!"

DiapDealer · 09-12-2019, 03:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

like if there's markup dividing an actual word, for instance (not that I can think of any good reason why there should be).

Drop caps, raised caps, or fancy first letters come to mind, now. You'll want to be wary of those regardless of the method used.

Tex2002ans · 09-12-2019, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Code:

\b(T)\b

in regex mode should catch most cases (replace with I).

I was a little hesitant with giving the Regex \bLetter\b, although in this case it might work okay.

I've gotten burned too many times on words like "can't", where the apostrophe counts as the word boundary, so the single 't' gets caught up. And then I only notice much too late after I Replace All and moved on. :P

Quote:

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Nothing's going to be perfect--like if there's markup dividing an actual word, for instance (not that I can think of any good reason why there should be).

Maths:

x-axis
sinx
x2y3
The kth number.

or emphasis on part of word:

nonexistent

That's just the few cases off the top of my head. :P

neilrh · 09-12-2019, 05:42 PM

Big thanks to everyone. I couldn't get spellcheck to pick up the single T, the only way I could get it to work was by showing all words and then scrolling down until I found it.

Search > Find & Replace, the count was 33 for([“"\s]*)T\s and 35 for \b(T)\b.

Sorted, and appreciate all the help.

BetterRed · 09-12-2019, 07:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

... --like if there's markup dividing an actual word, for instance (not that I can think of any good reason why there should be).

I have seen single syllables within a word italicised/emboldened/underlined, which results in erroneous errors be reported in hunspell spellchecking. Must have a look at PageEdit's spell checker to see if it handles them any better.

Why is it done, because the writer is not a very good writer.

BR

Tex2002ans · 09-12-2019, 08:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by neilrh

Big thanks to everyone. I couldn't get spellcheck to pick up the single T, the only way I could get it to work was by showing all words and then scrolling down until I found it.

Ahh yes, forgot that "Show All Words" needs to be checked.

Here is how mine looks:

Click image for larger version

Name: SpellcheckSingleLetter.png
Views: 129
Size: 6.3 KB
ID: 173440

1. Check the box for "Show All Words".

2. Type T into the search box.

3. Click the word you want to replace. In this case, the capital letter 'T'.

4. In the "Change Selected Word To" box, type what you want to replace. In this case, 'I'.

theducks · 09-12-2019, 11:32 PM

That is why I did not see it. I almost never tick that box (my list is usually pretty long, since I use it on SF/Fantasy a lot)

BetterRed · 09-13-2019, 01:49 AM

I use Show All to eye-ball hyphenated words

BR

Vroni · 09-13-2019, 02:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Nothing's going to be perfect--like if there's markup dividing an actual word, for instance (not that I can think of any good reason why there should be).

Quote:

END

Filler to have than 5 Words

Tex2002ans · 09-13-2019, 05:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vroni

Code:

E<small>ND</small>

Filler to have than 5 Words

No, there's never a valid reason to do abominations to try to emulate smallcaps. The cons heavily outweigh any "pros".

Always use:

Code:

<span class="smallcaps">The End</span>

span.smallcaps {
     font-variant: small-caps;
}

Hacking it together with :

Breaks spellchecking
Breaks Text-to-Speech
Loses proper capitalization info
[...]

Here's one of the latest books I had to cleanup:

Code:

<h3>J. P<small>ENALTIES ON</small> M<small>ARKET</small> F<small>ORMS</small></h3>

Text-to-Speech: "J. P" + "enalties on" + "M" + "arket F" + "orms".

Compare to:

Code:

<h3><span class="smallcaps">J. Penalties on Market Forms</span></h3>

It's also one of the most common places I see code errors/typos introduced.

And if you want "fun" spaghetti. Things get way more interesting when you intend to display actual lowercase words as caps:

Spoiler:

Throw in a few spaces, hyphens, numbers, and punctuation, and now we have a real ballgame!

Here's a few others straight from the book:

Spoiler:

09-12-2019, 01:36 PM	#3
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 29,922 Karma: 55705602 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	Tex I don't think #1 works with single letter words. Code: ([“"\s]*)T\s This is a little fancier tests for either of 2 types of quotes or space, then a single T followed by a space the capture allows replacement (I never got use of look behind down pat ) Code: \1I <remember the following space

09-12-2019, 03:09 PM	#6
DiapDealer Grand Sorcerer Posts: 27,587 Karma: 193191846 Join Date: Jan 2010 Device: Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD	Code: \b(T)\b in regex mode should catch most cases (replace with I). Nothing's going to be perfect--like if there's markup dividing an actual word, for instance (not that I can think of any good reason why there should be). But it should catch things like: "T want to know." or There but for the grace of god go T. But it will fail, if say, there's some dialog that attempts to simulate someone stuttering. Like: "I want T-T-T-T-To know!" Last edited by DiapDealer; 09-12-2019 at 03:13 PM.

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09-12-2019, 11:33 AM	#1
neilrh Member Posts: 10 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2019 Device: none	Replacing a single letter Hello, I'm using Sigil to edit a book which has many single T's instead of I's. example : (T will not) instead of the correct (I will not). Can anyone help me as to what to I need to enter in the find box to select a single T rather than t as part of a word. Thank you Neil

09-12-2019, 05:42 PM	#9
neilrh Member Posts: 10 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2019 Device: none	Big thanks to everyone. I couldn't get spellcheck to pick up the single T, the only way I could get it to work was by showing all words and then scrolling down until I found it. Search > Find & Replace, the count was 33 for([“"\s]*)T\s and 35 for \b(T)\b. Sorted, and appreciate all the help.

09-12-2019, 11:32 PM	#12
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 29,922 Karma: 55705602 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	That is why I did not see it. I almost never tick that box (my list is usually pretty long, since I use it on SF/Fantasy a lot)

09-13-2019, 01:49 AM	#13
BetterRed null operator (he/him) Posts: 20,650 Karma: 26966376 Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Sydney Australia Device: none	I use Show All to eye-ball hyphenated words BR

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