Questions about Punctuation , CHECK, text files, converting files

[Leonid Spektor]

Hi,

Please see answers below in your email.

Leonid.

> On Jul 23, 2021, at 15:03, Elnaz Kia <ek325 at nau.edu> wrote:
> 
> Hello again everyone,
> 
> Sorry for bombarding you with questions. I have categorized my questions into 4 sections. I would appreciate any tips on any of the questions.
> 
> 1. Punctuation Marks
> 
> On the 2021 CLAN and CHAT manuals, some punctuation marks have spaces before them and some don't. Is there a specific reason for that? The CHAT manual (2021, p.102) says: "For clarity, final punctuation on the main line is preceded by a space."
> 
> Q1: Should I add spaces before punctuation marks or not? 
> 
Punctuation marks that start with '+' character must have space character before them. Basic punctuations, like . ! ?, do not need space characters, but having space character will not make any difference.
> Q2: I have added spaces so far. If the answer to Q1 is no, then how can I remove spaces before punctuation marks in CLAN?
> 
I would suggest to leave space characters. They do add clarity.
> 2. Creating text files from .cha files
> 
> I wonder how everyone creates text files from the chat files. I do a simple save as .txt and then add angle brackets around the header lines so that I can later use the text files with concordance apps. My questions are:
> 
> Q3: how can I create text files (with headers) in batch. 
> 
All CHAT, i.e. .cha files, are already regular text files encoded in UTF-8 format. All you have to do is to change the file extension.
> Q4: How can I save a .cha file as .txt, without showing the bullets?
> 
You can use command "chstring +cbullets.cut *.cha" to remove bullets from all *.cha files. CLAN is distributed with special script files, like bullets.cut, that are used to do file cleanups. Those files are located in CLAN/lib/fixes folder
> Q5: Is it possible to use FLO and instead of creating the %flo line, directly apply the changes to the speaker line?
> 
Use FLO command with +d option. This will also do what you want in Q4:
>  3. Running CHECK
> 
> When I run check +re *.cha, I get the following error. However, when I open the file, it passes check (it doesn't have any problems with having space after @comment). 
> 
> Q6: Why is that?
> 
>  @Comment:        
> 
> Illegal character '<space>' found in tier text.
> 
This is possibly because you an have an extra space character in the comment line. Or right after the colon character. Tab character must be after the colon. Because space characters are invisible it is very difficult to highlight or locate the error. Please email that file to me directly to see what is wrong and maybe changing error message. 
> 4. Changing File Names and Extensions
> 
> Q7: How can I automatically change the file name and extensions for all the files that end in -silent.aif
> 
> Example: f0078c07raa_1-silent.aif --> f0078c07raa_1.mp3
> 
I would very much not recommend you do that, because .aif stands for AIFF audio media encoding format. It is not compressed format like .mp3 and if you change the extension, then this audio file might not be playable by sound players. You need to use sound editor to re-encode the audio file from one format to another. We use Amadeus Pro for sound editing. Other popular sound editor is Audacity.

If you want to just remove the -silent part from filename, then you can use ren *-silent.aif *.aif command.

>  I truly appreciate your help. 
> 
> P.S. I use CLAN v05 (Feb, 2021). 
> 
> Many thanks,
> 
> Elnaz
> 
>  
>  
> 
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