The NWP Ligature ... which expands on keying the Space bar.

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Freedom
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Joined: 2010-08-18 15:11:41

The NWP Ligature ... which expands on keying the Space bar.

Post by Freedom »

When this NWP ligature (is that the term?>) is used to delineate in the midst of text lines, how can one ensure that this ' 3 full-stop character' does not impact on a Search within a website when a visitor may wish to search for a phrase that may include this 'character' of which he is unaware?
For example:

A wet day ... needs a cloudy sky
A wet day ... raises the umbrellas
A wet day ... causes feet to run.

and then to search for 'wet day raises' as a set phrase for exact matching?

Is it possible this composite character has a standard reference which can be used to tell the search engine to ignore it as an unwanted character?
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martin
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Re: The NWP Ligature ... which expands on keying the Space bar.

Post by martin »

I'm not sure I know what you're asking. But let's start with the fundamentals: there are two ways of representing an ellipsis in text. Either using three consecutive period characters "..." (Unicode U+002E three times) or the single ellipsis character "…" (Unicode U+2026 just once). When you type text into Nisus Writer, if you type the formerly mentioned three periods, NWP will automatically convert them into the single latter ellipsis character.

This is not a ligature (which is an aspect of display/font), but an actual change in the underlying text (character codes). NWP makes the change because it is an entry in the default QuickFix settings. If you do not want this transformation to occur, you should remove the typo from your NWP QuickFix preferences.

Now, on to searching. If you want to find either three consecutive periods, or the single ellipsis character, you can use the following PowerFind Pro expression:

Code: Select all

\.\.\.|\u2026
I hope that answers your question. If not, please let me know, thanks.
Freedom
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Joined: 2010-08-18 15:11:41

Re: The NWP Ligature ... which expands on keying the Space bar.

Post by Freedom »

Thanks, Martin,

That resolves about 90% of it.
The remaining uncertainty is in the example:
When searching for 'A wet day raises' as an exact match fails when it contains an ellipsis after 'day' and before 'raises'.
Is it possible to denote the U+2026 character, embedded within this phrase, as one to be ignored in a search procedure so a positive answer will be returned for 'A wet day raises'? i.e It will be found.
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martin
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Re: The NWP Ligature ... which expands on keying the Space bar.

Post by martin »

Freedom wrote:When searching for 'A wet day raises' as an exact match fails when it contains an ellipsis after 'day' and before 'raises'.
Is it possible to denote the U+2026 character, embedded within this phrase, as one to be ignored in a search procedure so a positive answer will be returned for 'A wet day raises'? i.e It will be found.
Sure thing, though if you know for sure that you have U+2026, then you could just insert that character directly. But perhaps that's difficult because you don't know how to type U+2026? In any case, this is the PowerFind Pro expression:

Code: Select all

A wet day \u2026 raises
If you wanted to match "A wet day ... raises", where the ellipsis can be either 3 periods or U+2026, then you can use this:

Code: Select all

A wet day (\.\.\.|\u2026) raises
ssampler
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Re: The NWP Ligature ... which expands on keying the Space bar.

Post by ssampler »

The following version allows for the possibility that there is no ellipsis. There is a single space after "(" and no space before t "(" or after ")"

Steve

Code: Select all

A wet day( +|\.\.\.|\u2026)raises
Steve Samuels
sjsamuels@gmail.com
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