Add a separate setting for alternating dialogue/narration

novelwriter/config.py

@@ -161,8 +161,9 @@ class Config:
 
         self.dialogStyle     = 2        # Quote type to use for dialogue
         self.allowOpenDial   = True     # Allow open-ended dialogue quotes
-        self.narratorBreak   = ""       # Symbol to use for narrator break
         self.dialogLine      = ""       # Symbol to use for dialogue line
+        self.narratorBreak   = ""       # Symbol to use for narrator break
+        self.narratorDialog  = ""       # Symbol for alternating between dialogue and narrator
         self.altDialogOpen   = ""       # Alternative dialog symbol, open
         self.altDialogClose  = ""       # Alternative dialog symbol, close
         self.highlightEmph   = True     # Add colour to text emphasis
@@ -657,10 +658,11 @@ class Config:
         self.showFullPath    = conf.rdBool(sec, "showfullpath", self.showFullPath)
         self.dialogStyle     = conf.rdInt(sec, "dialogstyle", self.dialogStyle)
         self.allowOpenDial   = conf.rdBool(sec, "allowopendial", self.allowOpenDial)
+        self.dialogLine      = conf.rdStr(sec, "dialogline", self.dialogLine)
         self.narratorBreak   = conf.rdStr(sec, "narratorbreak", self.narratorBreak)
+        self.narratorDialog  = conf.rdStr(sec, "narratordialog", self.narratorDialog)
         self.altDialogOpen   = conf.rdStr(sec, "altdialogopen", self.altDialogOpen)
         self.altDialogClose  = conf.rdStr(sec, "altdialogclose", self.altDialogClose)
-        self.dialogLine      = conf.rdStr(sec, "dialogline", self.dialogLine)
         self.highlightEmph   = conf.rdBool(sec, "highlightemph", self.highlightEmph)
         self.stopWhenIdle    = conf.rdBool(sec, "stopwhenidle", self.stopWhenIdle)
         self.userIdleTime    = conf.rdInt(sec, "useridletime", self.userIdleTime)
@@ -766,10 +768,11 @@ class Config:
             "showfullpath":    str(self.showFullPath),
             "dialogstyle":     str(self.dialogStyle),
             "allowopendial":   str(self.allowOpenDial),
+            "dialogline":      str(self.dialogLine),
             "narratorbreak":   str(self.narratorBreak),
+            "narratordialog":  str(self.narratorDialog),
             "altdialogopen":   str(self.altDialogOpen),
             "altdialogclose":  str(self.altDialogClose),
-            "dialogline":      str(self.dialogLine),
             "highlightemph":   str(self.highlightEmph),
             "stopwhenidle":    str(self.stopWhenIdle),
             "useridletime":    str(self.userIdleTime),

novelwriter/dialogs/preferences.py

@@ -583,8 +583,18 @@ class GuiPreferences(NDialog):
         self.narratorBreak.setAlignment(QtAlignCenter)
         self.narratorBreak.setText(CONFIG.narratorBreak)
         self.mainForm.addRow(
-            self.tr("Alternating dialogue/narration symbol"), self.narratorBreak,
-            self.tr("Alternates dialogue highlighting within a paragraph.")
+            self.tr("Dialogue narrator break symbol"), self.narratorBreak,
+            self.tr("Symbol to indicate injected narrator break in dialogue")
+        )
+
+        self.narratorDialog = QLineEdit(self)
+        self.narratorDialog.setMaxLength(1)
+        self.narratorDialog.setFixedWidth(boxFixed)
+        self.narratorDialog.setAlignment(QtAlignCenter)
+        self.narratorDialog.setText(CONFIG.narratorDialog)
+        self.mainForm.addRow(
+            self.tr("Alternating dialogue/narration symbol"), self.narratorDialog,
+            self.tr("Alternates dialogue highlighting within any paragraph.")
         )
 
         self.highlightEmph = NSwitch(self)
@@ -952,8 +962,9 @@ class GuiPreferences(NDialog):
         # Text Highlighting
         dialogueStyle   = self.dialogStyle.currentData()
         allowOpenDial   = self.allowOpenDial.isChecked()
-        narratorBreak   = self.narratorBreak.text().strip()
         dialogueLine    = uniqueCompact(self.dialogLine.text())
+        narratorBreak   = self.narratorBreak.text().strip()
+        narratorDialog  = self.narratorDialog.text().strip()
         altDialogOpen   = compact(self.altDialogOpen.text())
         altDialogClose  = compact(self.altDialogClose.text())
         highlightEmph   = self.highlightEmph.isChecked()
@@ -961,8 +972,9 @@ class GuiPreferences(NDialog):
 
         updateSyntax |= CONFIG.dialogStyle != dialogueStyle
         updateSyntax |= CONFIG.allowOpenDial != allowOpenDial
-        updateSyntax |= CONFIG.narratorBreak != narratorBreak
         updateSyntax |= CONFIG.dialogLine != dialogueLine
+        updateSyntax |= CONFIG.narratorBreak != narratorBreak
+        updateSyntax |= CONFIG.narratorDialog != narratorDialog
         updateSyntax |= CONFIG.altDialogOpen != altDialogOpen
         updateSyntax |= CONFIG.altDialogClose != altDialogClose
         updateSyntax |= CONFIG.highlightEmph != highlightEmph
@@ -970,8 +982,9 @@ class GuiPreferences(NDialog):
 
         CONFIG.dialogStyle     = dialogueStyle
         CONFIG.allowOpenDial   = allowOpenDial
-        CONFIG.narratorBreak   = narratorBreak
         CONFIG.dialogLine      = dialogueLine
+        CONFIG.narratorBreak   = narratorBreak
+        CONFIG.narratorDialog  = narratorDialog
         CONFIG.altDialogOpen   = altDialogOpen
         CONFIG.altDialogClose  = altDialogClose
         CONFIG.highlightEmph   = highlightEmph

novelwriter/text/patterns.py

@@ -114,12 +114,13 @@ REGEX_PATTERNS = RegExPatterns()
 
 class DialogParser:
 
-    __slots__ = ("_quotes", "_dialog", "_narrator", "_break", "_enabled")
+    __slots__ = ("_quotes", "_dialog", "_narrator", "_alternate", "_break", "_enabled")
 
     def __init__(self) -> None:
         self._quotes = None
         self._dialog = ""
         self._narrator = ""
+        self._alternate = ""
         self._break = re.compile("")
         self._enabled = False
         return
@@ -135,6 +136,7 @@ class DialogParser:
         self._quotes = REGEX_PATTERNS.dialogStyle
         self._dialog = uniqueCompact(CONFIG.dialogLine)
         self._narrator = CONFIG.narratorBreak.strip()[:1]
+        self._alternate = CONFIG.narratorDialog.strip()[:1]
         self._break = re.compile(
             f"({self._narrator}\\s?.*?)(\\s?(?:{self._narrator}[{punct}]?|$))", re.UNICODE
         )
@@ -145,8 +147,10 @@ class DialogParser:
         """Caller wrapper for dialogue processing."""
         temp: list[int] = []
         if text:
+            plain = True
             if self._dialog and text[0] in self._dialog:
                 # The whole line is dialogue
+                plain = False
                 temp.append(0)
                 temp.append(len(text))
                 if self._narrator:
@@ -160,6 +164,7 @@ class DialogParser:
             elif self._quotes:
                 # The line contains quoted dialogue
                 for res in self._quotes.finditer(text):
+                    plain = False
                     temp.append(res.start(0))
                     temp.append(res.end(0))
                     if self._narrator:
@@ -169,9 +174,10 @@ class DialogParser:
                                 temp.append(res.start(2))
                             else:
                                 temp.append(res.end(0))
-            elif not self._dialog and self._narrator:
+
+            if plain and self._alternate:
                 pos = 0
-                for num, bit in enumerate(text.split(self._narrator)):
+                for num, bit in enumerate(text.split(self._alternate)):
                     length = len(bit) + int(num > 0)
                     if num%2:
                         temp.append(pos)