selecting text across split panes?

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PierceRButler
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Joined: 2022-01-14 11:24:09

selecting text across split panes?

Post by PierceRButler »

I have a fairly long document including paste-ins from various web sites, each headed by the appropriate URL and a headline.

And I want to extract just the URLs and headings from a copy of this document.

But when I set up (horizontal) split panes, search in the lower pane for "http", select the line above that, then shift-click below the headline in the upper pane, I just make the upper pane active with the cursor where I clicked, instead of getting a selection spanning the pages between those two click points.

The .pdf manual's section on selection doesn't seem to cover this. How can I select long swathes of text across split panes?
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martin
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Re: selecting text across split panes?

Post by martin »

I don't think Split View will help you with your task. The selection in one split view is completely separate from all other split views.

There's probably a few different ways to approach your task. Do your headlines have a style applied (e.g. Heading 1) that marks them for inclusion in the TOC? If so I might choose to work through the TOC navigator sidebar. You could relatively easily also mark your links for TOC inclusion (perhaps only temporarily) and then copy what you want, e.g.

1. Use Find All to select all "http" text.
2. Apply TOC inclusion.
3. Use the Navigator sidebar to expand the selection to also include the desired headlines.
4. Copy all of the selected text (headlines and links) all at once.

But there are surely other ways you can extract only text you want.
adryan
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Re: selecting text across split panes?

Post by adryan »

G'day, PierceRButler et al

If all you want is to extract heading+URL pairs, this can be accomplished quite easily with a simple Find operation without the need to worry about split panes, Styles or TOCs.

In PowerFind Pro you could use the following Find expression:–

Code: Select all

.+\nhttp.+\n
Performing a Find All operation will highlight the pairs in your document. You can then copy them all at once, then paste them wherever you wish.

This assumes that the sought URLs each occur on the line immediately following a heading and that the URL line commences with "http". It further assumes that every line immediately preceding a URL line that commences with "http" is in fact a heading. As always, it's important to know your document before you embark on some major procedure.

I hope this helps.

Cheers,
Adrian
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PierceRButler
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Joined: 2022-01-14 11:24:09

Re: selecting text across split panes?

Post by PierceRButler »

Thanks to both Adrian & Martin for helping me understand this a little better.

I have to admit I somewhat oversimplified my challenge here: f'rinstance, the "headline" I want to save is several lines, including 2-4 hyperlinks. So far as I can tell, there are no Nisus-recognized styles (except the links) in the headlines or the text bodies I want to delete.

Will have to experiment with y'alls' suggestions to see if I can get them to work (haven't even had reason to make a TOC before, and only rarely played with PowerFind Pro) - but I just did several hours of carpentry between posting my query and typing this reply, so am too tired to jump in and work it all out right now.

Carpentry isn't finished either, but I hope to get back to Nisusing sometime this weekend...

Thanks again!

Pierce
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martin
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Re: selecting text across split panes?

Post by martin »

PierceRButler wrote: 2022-01-14 17:09:10 Carpentry isn't finished either, but I hope to get back to Nisusing sometime this weekend...
I hope all went well with your carpentry and Nisusing. Hah I like that! Maybe it should be Nisussing... 🤔

There's probably a variety of ways to accomplish what you want, depending on your document styles, structure, etc. Here's a selection macro that may help you satisfy your original attempted workflow. The macro will expand the active split view's selection to encompass all text selected in all other split views, as well as any intervening text between those selections. That's very similar to what happens when you hold down the Shift key and click to extend a single text selection.

However you decide to tackle things, please let us know if you have any more questions.
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