jyhelle
105 lines
4.7 KiB
ReStructuredText
105 lines
4.7 KiB
ReStructuredText
.. _a_typ:
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*******************
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Typographical Notes
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*******************
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novelWriter has some support for typographical symbols that are not usually easily available in
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many text editors. This includes for instance the proper unicode quotation marks, dashes, ellipsis,
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thin spaces, etc. All these symbols are available from the :guilabel:`Insert` menu, and via
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keyboard shortcuts. See :ref:`a_ui_shortcuts_ins`.
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This chapter provides some additional information on how novelWriter handles these symbols.
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.. _a_typ_notes:
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Special Notes on Symbols
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========================
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Some additional notes on these symbols.
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Dashes and Ellipsis
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-------------------
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With the auto-replace feature enabled (see :ref:`a_ui_edit_auto`), multiple hyphens are converted
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automatically to short and long dashes, and three dots to ellipsis. The last auto-replace can
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always be reverted with the undo command :kbd:`Ctrl`:kbd:`Z`, reverting the text to what you typed
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before the automatic replacement occurred.
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The symbols are available in the :guilabel:`Insert` menu. In addition, "Figure Dash" is also
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available. The Figure Dash is a dash that has the same width as the numbers of the same font, which
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tend to be the same width so that numbers align nicely in columns.
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Single and Double Quotes
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------------------------
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All the different quotation marks listed on the `Quotation Mark`_ Wikipedia page are available, and
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can be selected as auto-replaced symbols for straight single and double quote key strokes. The
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settings can be found in :guilabel:`Preferences`.
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Ordinarily, text wrapped in quotes are highlighted by the editor. This is meant as a convenience
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for highlighting dialogue between characters. This feature can be disabled in
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:guilabel:`Preferences` if this feature isn't wanted.
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The editor distinguishes between text wrapped in straight quotes and with the user-selected double
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quote symbols. This is to help the writer recognise which parts of the text are not using the
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chosen quote symbols. Two convenience functions in the :guilabel:`Format` menu can be used to
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re-format a selected section of text with the correct quote symbols.
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.. _Quotation Mark: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quotation_mark
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Single and Double Prime
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------------------------
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Both single and double prime symbols are available in the :guilabel:`Insert` menu. These symbols
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are the correct symbols to use for unit symbols for feet, inches, minutes and seconds. The usage of
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these is described in more detail on the Wikipedia Prime_ page. They look very similar to single
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and double straight quotes, and may be renderred similarly by the font, but they have different
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codes. Using these correctly will also prevent the auto-replace and dialogue highlighting features
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misunderstanding their meaning in the text.
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.. _Prime: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_(symbol)
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Modifier Letter Apostrophe
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--------------------------
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The auto-replace feature will consider any right-facing single straight quote as a quote symbol,
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even if it's intended as an apostrophe. This also includes the syntax highlighter, which may assume
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the first following apostrophe is the closing symbol of a single quoted region of text.
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To get around this, an alternative apostrophe is available. It is a special Unicode character that
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is not categorised as punctuation, but as a modifier. It is usually renderred the same way as the
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right single quotation marks, depending on the font. There is a Wikipedia article for the
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`Modifier letter apostrophe`_ with more details.
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.. note::
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On export with the :guilabel:`Build Novel Project` tool, these apostrophes will be replaced
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automatically with the corresponding right hand single quote symbol as is generally recommended.
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Therefore it doesn't really matter if you only use them to correct highlighting.
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.. _Modifier letter apostrophe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modifier_letter_apostrophe
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Special Space Symbols
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---------------------
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A few variations of the regular space character is supported. The correct typographical way to
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separate a number from its unit is with a `thin space`_. It is usually 2/3 the width of a regular
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space. For numbers and units, this should in addition be a non-breaking space, that is, the text
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wrapping should not add a line break on this particular space.
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A regular space can also be made into a non-breaking space if needed.
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All non-breaking spaces are highlighted with a differently coloured background to make it easier to
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spot them in the text. The colour will depend on the selected colour theme.
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The thin and non-breaking spaces are converted to their corresponding HTML codes on export to HTML
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format. For plain text, they are exported as regular spaces.
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.. _thin space: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin_space
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