"Wildcard" expressions for common academic editing tasks
Dear all,
MS Word (and no doubt all the other WP programs) allows one to enter complex variable expressions in the Find/Replace fields, such that repetitive editing tasks can be greatly speeded up.
For instance, to switch from Oxford to Chicago punctuation-with-closing-quotation-mark style, enter:
()([,.]) in the Find field
and
\2\1 in the Replace field;
switch on "Use Wildcards" and then one can click rapidly through the document, making the changes with a single mouse click as opposed to three or four.
They are really helpful in working on reference lists; with a few expressions, one can switch a list from one style to another in seconds.
Of course, they don't remove the need for human care and oversight; but they seem to me to make things easier.
I'm developing a list of these expressions ; I'd be very interested to know if you find them useful, whether you have any of that you use already - and whether this is old hat or something new. Potentially, we could pool our expressions and put them on the co-op site somewhere.
Best,
Ben
MS Word (and no doubt all the other WP programs) allows one to enter complex variable expressions in the Find/Replace fields, such that repetitive editing tasks can be greatly speeded up.
For instance, to switch from Oxford to Chicago punctuation-with-closing-quotation-mark style, enter:
()([,.]) in the Find field
and
\2\1 in the Replace field;
switch on "Use Wildcards" and then one can click rapidly through the document, making the changes with a single mouse click as opposed to three or four.
They are really helpful in working on reference lists; with a few expressions, one can switch a list from one style to another in seconds.
Of course, they don't remove the need for human care and oversight; but they seem to me to make things easier.
I'm developing a list of these expressions ; I'd be very interested to know if you find them useful, whether you have any of that you use already - and whether this is old hat or something new. Potentially, we could pool our expressions and put them on the co-op site somewhere.
Best,
Ben
... I managed to reset my password. I think maybe this string will do it (re your other note).
FIND
,([0-9]{3})
REPLACE
\1
[NB the replace field starts with a space!]
Cheers,
Ben
Hi Ben,
It's been a long time since we communicated about regular expressions - almost two years! I am wondering if you could come up with a regular expression for a task I need to perform for my current editing project.It is an extremely long government report with 80 tables filled with figures. I need to change commas to spaces in all numerals four digits and higher. So, for example, I would need to change 5,600 to 5 600 and 67, 897 to 67 897. I'd be so grateful if you could help!
Hi!Hmmm - PerfectIt looks interesting. A clever tool. I don't think I could do better - but perhaps I could come up with some tools that would be specifically tuned to academic reference lists. I'll see what I can do.Btw - Which referencing styles do you find yourself having to change between most frequently? For me it's Chicago Notes-Bibliography style to Chicago Reference List, I guess.
Hi Ben,Sorry, I wasn't very clear in my last post - using the word "automatically" was a bit misleading. I was actually imagining software that could speed things up in exactly the way you describe.Have you heard of the software PerfectIt? It is an editing tool that alerts you to inconsistencies. It works in a similar way. It points out that you have an inconsistency, for example, a phrase capitalised in three locations and not capitalised in two. You then have the choice to either leave as is or make a change. However, PerfectIt is limited in the range of inconsistencies that it checks. It does not check for inconsistencies in punctuation, for example, so it is not useful for these issues with referencing/citations that we have been discussing. I do use PerfectIt after I have completed my copy edits, just for extra 'insurance' but, as I said, it is limited. I am sure you could come up with something far better.You can check out PerfectIt here: http://www.intelligentediting.com/standardversion.aspxWendy
Hi Ben,Yes I used several of these - especially the one for missing full stops - and they allowed me to skim and correct my bibliography with surprising speed and accuracy,Many thanks!Orlene
Hi Orlene!I was just wondering if you found any of those regular expressions useful. It'd be very interesting for me to know whether they are helpful or intuitive, or whether you preferred to leave them and do it by eye. Any and all feedback (especially negative feedback! If they were useless please do say!) welcome!Cheers,Ben
Hi Wendy,I've been thinking about this (the words "make your fortune" concentrated the mind ... ) Unfortunately I think it's a tricky problem - I think that we can speed it up, but not do it automatically - at least, never with the reliability that an academic wants - because of the problem of unexpected variation. (Once computers learn to perform as well as humans in this I think we'll be in the land of The Terminator - i.e. you can forget editing and get your laser gun.)What I could do is combine some of the regular expressions I've made so that they become more powerful tools which could walk you through a document saying, in effect, "Do you want to change this ... do you want to change that" - and you click "yes" and it does it automatically. But it wouldn't remove the need for a human to look it all over at the end and spot remaining errors.Would that be any use to you, though? - or would it leave you preferring just to do it yourself and forget the technology?Cheers!Ben
Hi Ben,I think you would make your fortune if you turned your attention to creating some software that allowed editors to change citation/bibliographic styles.This is a continuing issue for me (and for many others, it appears) and not only with academic papers. I often edit conference papers for publication. I can have as many as 50 papers to edit, all using various referencing styles (and many not using their particular chosen style correctly!). Some publishers want the publication to adhere to one style throughout. This is a huge task. There are so many styles -- it's staggering!If only there was software that could change Vancouver style to Oxford style, and so forth, my life (and many other editors' lives) would be so much easier. I'd pay a decent sum for software that could do that!Wendy
Great! Thanks!
Hi - Hopefully this will work:To go from Annis, M. B.1988, to Annis, M. (1988).Find (with Wildcards checked)^13(<*>), ([A-Z]). ([A-Z]).([0-9]{4}),Replace^p\1, \2. (\4).If there is only one initial, thus:Annis, M.1988, to Annis, M. (1988).Find^13(<*>), ([A-Z]).([0-9]{4}),Replace^p\1, \2. (\3).This will miss out certain things, and probably find things that you don't want, but overall if you click through with it I hope it will save you some time...Cheers, Ben