RegEx or RE Function to apply [Change Case] Capitialize?

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by phossler

Yes, but if there's 100 chapters in the book that all have the upper case leadin for the first paragraph, then I'd have to select the text for each chapter manually.

I was only wondering if there was a way to find a group of upper case words at the beginning of a paragraph and do all 100 at once

If you like, I can repeat my advice:

"capture the first three words and apply the default, builtin regex function"

If you can find a way to restrict the regex to only the first three words using Sigil's S&R with the PCRE replacement extensions, then you can restrict it to only the first three words in calibre, and use the function replace instead. I am afraid theducks was entirely on the wrong track there.

I'll try to avoid arguing with myself

It makes it confusing to read:

ALLCAPS ALLCAPS ALLCAPS lower case

Should become:

Allcaps allcaps allcaps lower case

When the truth of the matter is that the second line is not, in fact, still all caps despite the words saying "allcaps" (and being either titlecased or lowercase).

[phossler]

Thanks to the comments and suggestions, I think I have something that seems to work, at least for the majority of cases. I have to remember to check [Case Sensitive], and it certainly is not fool proof, but so far seems to let me [Replace and Find] and do a manual check. Add this to my Saved Searches

It will fail on BR's examples, so I won't let 'er rip, but stepping through is a lot faster

Find:

<p>([A-Z]{2,}[\s\.,-;:]){1,6}


Replace:

Capitalize text (ignore tags)

I don't know if this is the most effecient or bullet proof way, so I will take any suggestions

[eschwartz]

Looking good.

That was pretty much what I was thinking of from the beginning (or near as makes no difference).

[BetterRed]

I do similar, but as part of my 'find and style Chapter Headings and Scene Breaks' process. At the same I drop any dropcaps, or first letter bold artefacts etc.

After that I march though all the 'four or more consecutive capitals' in case I missed something - such as an unstyled scene break.

BR

[Thom*]

DON'T FORGET THAT A quote might need to be added. I have seen cases where this whole concern is an issue at scene changes in addition to chapter starts.

MAYBE AS NEW BOOKS ARE published electronically and the publisher/printer is left out of the picture this will be less of an issue.

ONLY TIME WILL tell," he said.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Thom*

DON'T FORGET THAT A quote might need to be added. I have seen cases where this whole concern is an issue at scene changes in addition to chapter starts.

MAYBE AS NEW BOOKS ARE published electronically and the publisher/printer is left out of the picture this will be less of an issue.

ONLY TIME WILL tell," he said.

Just in case anyone is mistaken, the publisher/printer didn't neglect to put in the opening quote, the scanning software lost it, and the OCR Fixup process failed to detect its absence, as it often fails to detect these scanner errors:

'The cow jumped over the moon."
'Where is Sally today?"

Toxaris' Dialogue Checker will detect and assist in correcting such errors.

My observation is that electronic only books that have dispensed with the services of publishers, editors, printers etc, more often than not also dispense with reading the proofs! Prevailing attitude seems to be if they pass epubcheck, get through the KDP etc etc, then they must be readable

BR