Re: [libreoffice-users] Multiple newlines

Hi Brian,

Thanks for introducing a fundamental concept that my brain had not yet grasped. As for the details:

On 2020-07-20 18:49, Brian Barker wrote:
> At 16:38 20/07/2020 -0400, John Kaufmann wrote:
> > Documents archived in Project Gutenberg are typically simple text, with each line ending in <CR><LF> (Hex:0D0A), so that 
> > paragraphs are separated by an empty line <CR><LF><CR><LF>. I thought it would be simple to convert one such 
> > (5657.txt) to format in Writer, ...
> > ... but stumbled on elementary problems in Find-&-Replace [Ctrl-H] using regular expressions:
> > (1) "\n" is not found. Should not "\n" match one of the codes in <CR><LF>? [If not, what code(s) should 
> > "\n" match?]
>
> First, once you have your text in a word processor, you do not have <CR> or <LF> or <CR><LF> or anything else like that in your text; 
> instead you have *paragraph breaks*. There is no character there, despite the pilcrow that you can get Writer to display. And what you are calling "empty 
> lines" are actually empty paragraphs. "\n" in the "Search for" field matches line breaks, not paragraph breaks. (And line beaks are line 
> breaks - also no "codes".)

You sent me to do something I should have done before asking the question: examine a hex dump of an ODT content.xml file.  I 
see what you mean about "no codes": A paragraph is just a text string between XML bounds <text:p ...> and 
</text:p>, and a line break (inside the paragraph bounds) is just <text:line-break/>. Sorry; I should have done 
that sooner, rather than rely on a different paradigm that once worked for me.


> > (2) Although "$" is found (matches to <CR><LF>), ...
>
> No, "$" does not match anything; instead, it anchors the expression before it to the end of a paragraph. So 
> an expression ending with "$" will match text only if it comes at the end of its paragraph.
>
> > ... "$$" (for successive occurrences of <CR><LF>) is not found. Why?
>
> "$$" has no sense. If anything it means "this pattern needs to match something that is *really, really* 
> at the end of a paragraph"!

:-)!  Given what I learned after your answer on (1), this (2) is obvious.


> > (3) Doing Find "$" & Replace with " " (single space), <CR><LF> is replaced by " " (single space). However, doing Find "$" & Replace 
> > with "@" (single @char), <CR><LF> is replaced by "@@" (double @char). Why?
>
> I don't think that's true. In any case, there are no <CR><LF>s present.

You're right. Examining again, I note that the "@@" was a remnant of a prior attempt to replace the <CR><LF><CR><LF> of the 
original text file with "@@" (prior to replacing all other <CR><LF> with " "). A faulty mental model led to a bad approach and a 
misreading of the result.


> To achieve what you want:
>
> First combine single-line paragraphs:
> o Apply Default paragraph style to all the text.
> o Select all the text.
> o Apply AutoCorrect.
> (You may need to adjust the minimum length of such paragraphs in AutoCorrect Options - possibly to 
> 0%.)

Thank you! - that is not obvious (and I had not found it in the Help or the Writer Guide), but was worth the price of having this problem arise. AutoCorrect had the effect of changing most non-empty 
"Default Style" paragraphs to "Text Body" style, with the rest chosen [by spacing hints?] to be "Hanging Indent", "Heading", "Heading 1", 
"List", "List 1", "Numbering 2" or "Text Body Indent". (Empty paragraphs remained "Default Style".)  That was a MUCH more elaborate and sophisticated 
AutoCorrect than I ever would have imagined.

Now I understand the point of AutoCorrect Option "Combine single line paragraphs if length greater than 50%". 
But how do you "adjust the minimum length of such paragraphs in AutoCorrect Options - possibly to 0%"? (The 
fact that I don't find the setting suggests that I may have also missed something basic in your explanation.)

Note: Even after having this excellent explanation on a use of AutoCorrect, I went back to the 
Writer Guide and still don't find it. So it may take quite some time to learn enough of such 
subtleties to feel that I have a solid grasp.


> Then remove empty paragraphs:
> o Search for "^$" (no quotes) and replace with nothing.
> ("^" anchors your pattern to the start of a paragraph and "$" to the end. So "^$" matches a 
> paragraph with nothing in it.)

Again I like your pedagogical approach, matching the action with the reasoning. You should be a 
teacher.


> I trust this helps.

Helps?! It was an education. (If you could just answer the follow-up question on AutoCorrect 
Options...)

Thanks again,
John

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