En-dash option for smarten punctuation

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

DiapDealers's fantastic plugins can already do this:

• Diap's Editing Toolbag
  
  • For Calibre.

How do you use Diap's Editing Toolbag for calibre to deal with dashes?

I want to replace all en-dashes with and without spaces to en-dashes without spaces. Also, I want all em-dashes with spaces to be em-dashes without spaces.

[Tex2002ans]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

How do you use Diap's Editing Toolbag for calibre to deal with dashes?

I personally don't. I always have it on the setting:

• Do not educate dashes

I only use Diap's Editing Toolbag for smartening quotation marks.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I want to replace all en-dashes with and without spaces to en-dashes without spaces. Also, I want all em-dashes with spaces to be em-dashes without spaces.

Then use a Regular Expressions + Saved Searches:

Regex #3: SPACE + EN DASH + SPACE -> No-space EM DASH

• Find: ( )–( )
• Replace: \1—\2

or various mixes of \s or whatever types of spaces you're trying to find/fix.

- - -

Personally, if I was adjusting those dashes, I'd:

• Use Diap's Editing Toolbag once...
• Then take a very close look at all the diffs, making sure it got all correct.

I don't believe it's a very smart idea to mass change "spaced dashes" like this without verification (or deciding on a case-by-case basis), because you don't know what sort of madness might be inside the book.

I've seen too many cases of:

• THIN SPACES
  
  • This is a small – very small – example of text.
    
  • This is a small — very small — example of text.
    
• HAIR SPACES
  
  • This is a small – very small – example of text.
    
  • This is a small — very small — example of text.
    

or all sorts of weird spacing mixed around the dashes too.

Again, see the 2022 topic: "False paragraph breaks & RegEx" where I went into all the edge-case details. (Like em dashes signifying "cut off" dialogue.)

- - -

Side Note: I've even seen the (definitely wrong):

• single HYPHENs
  
  • This is a small - very small - example of text.
    
  • This is a small-very small-example of text.
    

This is why it all has to be on a book-by-book, case-by-case basis. Trying to mass change this type of stuff isn't smart without looking through the text first.

Luckily, every book I work with uses and enforces the proper EM DASH with no spaces around it. And I don't have to worry about the quotation dashes or anything like that. Makes it much easier on my end.

- - -

Side Note #2: Personally, this is what I use. 3 sets of Regex:

Regex #1: Remove spaces from EM DASH

• Search: [ ]*—[ ]*
• Replace: —

Regex #2: Inserting EN DASH

• Search: ([0-9])-([0-9])
• Replace: \1–\2

Regex #3: Converting to EN DASH (Accidental EM DASH)

• Search: ([0-9])—([0-9])
• Replace: \1–\2

I run:

• Regex #1 once.
• Regex #2 and #3 one-at-a-time, and go through the book on a case-by-case basis.
  • You have to be really careful, because URLs especially have lots of numbers+hyphens inside.

Before:

<p>This is a small— very small — example of text.</p>
<p>The 2000-2010 period was the root cause.</p>
<p>See pp. 5—9.</p>

After:

<p>This is a small—very small—example of text.</p>
<p>The 2000–2010 period was the root cause.</p>
<p>See pp. 5–9.</p>

That takes care of the bulk of dash mistakes/inconsistencies/"OCR errors" I see.

[Noirtier]

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

Then you will want to create 2 Regular Expressions...

That's a useful approach thanks. I was previously thinking I would have to do it in two separate steps, first to deal with the ones with spaces, and then any remaining without.

It also occurred to me that where I most need this feature is for fixing up book descriptions ("Comments" metadata) in Calibre. It would be great if a smarten punctuation button could be added to the formatting toolbar for that. But in the meantime I typically copy and paste the text into Notepad++ for editing where I can make use of regex replacements if desired.

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

..the "Saved Searches" feature...

I hadn't come across that editing option in Sigil nor Calibre before so great to learn about too thank you