Finding missing spaces
Finding missing spaces
I have a somewhat large help project, and occasionally I find missing spaces in various topics for various reasons. Does anyone know if there is a way to search for missing spaces in Flare? I can find some missing spaces with a spell check, but, if I'm using a variable and there's a missing space after it, the spell check doesn't catch it. Any ideas are welcome.
Re: Finding missing spaces
This isn't an ideal solution, but it does the trick.
I need to create Word output versions of all my content anyway, so I generate my Word output and then run spellcheck inside Word. This catches the spacing issues, but it is definitely a pain. It's a much bigger pain if you have no other reason to create Word output.
I need to create Word output versions of all my content anyway, so I generate my Word output and then run spellcheck inside Word. This catches the spacing issues, but it is definitely a pain. It's a much bigger pain if you have no other reason to create Word output.
-Dan, Propellerhead-in-training
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kwag_myers
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Re: Finding missing spaces
I have this issue due to sending files out for translation and I've yet to find a clean way to resolve it. One step in my process that may be of help is to Find "/>" and Replace with "/> " in the source code. Unfortunately, you have to Find each instance as there are several occurrences in the header and possibly at the end of a sentence. But it's much quicker than proof reading each topic.
"I'm tryin' to think, but nothin' happens!" - Curly Joe Howard
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techwriter31
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Re: Finding missing spaces
We do something similar to kwag_myers too.
Not sure if this helps with your issue, but we have found that we often have missing spaces between words when inline formatting (bold, italics, span tags, etc.) is applied to one or more words. In the XML editor, it can be difficult to visually determine if there is enough space directly before and after the bracket and the words appear to run into one another in the generated output. A quick way to fix this problem is to perform a find and replace operation within the source code using regular expressions. The following example demonstrates how to perform a search for bold text that has a missing space directly after it.
Note: We always use find and replace operations with caution. Flare 10 introduced new find/replace capabilities, and when performing a "Replace All" operation, it replaces all instances within ALL files and silently saves the updated files.
1. Open the Find and Replace in File Window.
2. From the Find in drop-down, select (whole project).
3. From the File types drop-down, select All.
4. Select the Find in source code checkbox.
5. Select the Use checkbox and select Regular Expressions from the drop-down.
6. Within the Find field, enter the </b> followed by a regular expression.
[a-z]: Lowercase letters. For example, enter </b>[a-z] in the Find field to look for any lowercase letters that directly follow the closing bold tag.
[A-Z]: Uppercase letters. For example, enter </b>[A-Z] in the Find field to look for any uppercase letters that directly follow the closing bold tag.
[\d]: Upper decimal digits. For example, enter </b>\d in the Find field to look for any decimal digits that directly follow the closing bold tag.
7. Press the Find Next button to locate any instances of this problem. Manually insert the space between the closing bold tag and the next word.
Not sure if this helps with your issue, but we have found that we often have missing spaces between words when inline formatting (bold, italics, span tags, etc.) is applied to one or more words. In the XML editor, it can be difficult to visually determine if there is enough space directly before and after the bracket and the words appear to run into one another in the generated output. A quick way to fix this problem is to perform a find and replace operation within the source code using regular expressions. The following example demonstrates how to perform a search for bold text that has a missing space directly after it.
Note: We always use find and replace operations with caution. Flare 10 introduced new find/replace capabilities, and when performing a "Replace All" operation, it replaces all instances within ALL files and silently saves the updated files.
1. Open the Find and Replace in File Window.
2. From the Find in drop-down, select (whole project).
3. From the File types drop-down, select All.
4. Select the Find in source code checkbox.
5. Select the Use checkbox and select Regular Expressions from the drop-down.
6. Within the Find field, enter the </b> followed by a regular expression.
[a-z]: Lowercase letters. For example, enter </b>[a-z] in the Find field to look for any lowercase letters that directly follow the closing bold tag.
[A-Z]: Uppercase letters. For example, enter </b>[A-Z] in the Find field to look for any uppercase letters that directly follow the closing bold tag.
[\d]: Upper decimal digits. For example, enter </b>\d in the Find field to look for any decimal digits that directly follow the closing bold tag.
7. Press the Find Next button to locate any instances of this problem. Manually insert the space between the closing bold tag and the next word.
Kellie
Re: Finding missing spaces
Thanks for all your suggestions. This has helped a lot!