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• • February 19, 2019 at 2:52 pm #114472
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    Hi all,

    Not sure if this is possible with GREP or whether it needs a script. I’m editing a long text conversation between two parties. Each party starts their message with

    Name1: Message message message
    Name2: Message message message

    but sometimes Name1 sends multiple messages in a row before Name2 responds. In those instances, I’d like to replace “Name1:” with a carriage return and tab. What I am effectively looking for is an expression that says “Find when this happens more than once before the other thing happens, and replace only the second and subsequent instances of it until you find the other one.”

    I like my GREP but I think I might be pushing it. Does this require a script instead?

    Thanks in advance for your help!

  • February 22, 2019 at 10:08 am #114612
    Masood Ahmad

    Participant

    Try this…

    GREP Find/Change:
    Find What: ^(Name1:.+\r)(Name1:.+\r)+
    Change to: $0\r

  • February 25, 2019 at 7:46 am #114643
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    Hi,

    Thanks for your help, but that hasn’t found anything unfortunately! Have tried a few different variations of it to no avail.

  • February 26, 2019 at 2:49 am #114650
    Kai Rübsamen

    Member

    Craig, if Masoods grep doesn’t work, please provide a real example instead of “message message” …

  • February 26, 2019 at 9:18 am #114655
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    Thanks – sorry if I wasn’t giving enough detail.

    19:49 Jim: How you doing?
    19:53 Jane: I’ve finished tidying here
    19:53 Jim: Can either start another thing or meet you in a bit?
    20:20 Jane: We’re just sorting the bill now
    20:20 Jane: Shouldn’t be too long
    20:21 Jim: Cool beans
    20:41 Jane: Just walking to the station now

    They’re all formatted like this.

    The ideal result would be:

    19:49 Jim: How you doing?
    19:53 Jane: I’ve finished tidying here
    19:53 Jim: Can either start another thing or meet you in a bit?
    20:20 Jane: We’re just sorting the bill now
    [TAB] Shouldn’t be too long
    20:21 Jim: Cool beans
    20:41 Jane: Just walking to the station now

    The repeated instance has been removed and replaced with a tab character.

    Obviously the times vary, so I have been attempting to get around that with wildcards, but I might be overcomplicating it. I’d be really grateful if someone knows the best way to be expressing this.

  • February 26, 2019 at 11:34 am #114658
    Peter Kahrel

    Participant

    Find what: ^(.+? ).+\r\K\1
    Replace with:

    P.

  • February 27, 2019 at 5:11 am #114669
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    Hi Peter,

    That works partly – thanks so much. However, it gets rid of the second instance of the name without finding those where there are sometimes 3 or 4 instances in a row. I assume this is probably just a single small correction to the formula but I haven’t been able to work it out. Any ideas?

    EDIT: in fact – sometimes it finds the third instance without touching the second…!

  • February 27, 2019 at 5:52 am #114671
    Kai Rübsamen

    Member

    Craig, this needs more clarification!

    If I run Peters GREP on your lines, then 19:53 and 20:20 is selected. But at 19:53 these are different persons. In your final result this shouldn’t be removed? So what is the goal? Remove the date-time only, if it is the same person? Is it always the same time or only the same person?

  • March 3, 2019 at 1:46 pm #114718
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    Apologies all for not going into enough detail – really did intend on making this a relatively easy question to answer..!

    Here is a good long sample of text:

    13:29 Jim: Cos I was leaving you
    13:29 Jim: And wandering off
    13:29 Jim: To look at some random store
    13:35 Jane: Oh
    13:35 Jane: Thanks
    13:37 Jane: I can’t find a taxi
    13:37 Jane: I’m going to try and book a late gym class and then get a late train home
    13:37 Jim: ?
    13:38 Jane: Yeah
    13:38 Jane: It’s a pain
    13:39 Jane: Likely won’t get home till 10
    13:39 Jane: But c’est la vid
    13:39 Jim: Come to the office
    13:39 Jim: Grab the key
    13:39 Jane: *vid
    13:39 Jim: Go to mine
    13:39 Jane: Arrr
    13:39 Jane: *vie
    13:39 Jane: No no it’s okay
    13:39 Jim: No it’s really okay
    13:39 Jane: I should probably go home
    13:39 Jane: Don’t worry
    13:39 Jim: Ahhh come on you were clearly asking me if you could come
    13:39 Jim: See
    13:40 Jim: See
    13:40 Jane: I wasn’t
    13:40 Jane: I was venting

    ———-

    Here is the ideal result:

    13:29 Jim: Cos I was leaving you
    [TAB] And wandering off
    [TAB] To look at some random store
    13:35 Jane: Oh
    [TAB] Thanks
    [TAB] I can’t find a taxi
    [TAB] I’m going to try and book a late gym class and then get a late train home
    13:37 Jim: ?
    13:38 Jane: Yeah
    [TAB] It’s a pain
    [TAB] Likely won’t get home till 10
    [TAB] But c’est la vid
    13:39 Jim: Come to the office
    [TAB] Grab the key
    13:39 Jane: *vid
    13:39 Jim: Go to mine
    13:39 Jane: Arrr
    [TAB] *vie
    [TAB] No no it’s okay
    13:39 Jim: No it’s really okay
    13:39 Jane: I should probably go home
    [TAB] Don’t worry
    13:39 Jim: Ahhh come on you were clearly asking me if you could come
    [TAB] See
    [TAB] See
    13:40 Jane: I wasn’t
    [TAB] I was venting

    The aim is to have the conversation read more naturally on the page as a result of the removal, because each individual message after the first from a person will simply read as a new line rather than having to read their name again.

    So, instance 1 of “NAME1:” remains, then instances 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and so on until “NAME2:” is written are deleted and replaced by a tab character. It is more complex than I explained up there; I understand if the answer is ‘this can’t be done’ – but I live in hope! I have a few thousand messages to apply this to otherwise. We shouldn’t worry too much about the time specifically as I know I can remove that with a different expression (and have done on some sections of text already) but the names are the things giving me issues.

  • March 4, 2019 at 3:11 am #114721
    Peter Kahrel

    Participant

    This one:

    ^.+?(.+?:).+\r\K.+\1

    Looks at names, not times. But it matches only the second identical name. You could do an expression that matches all, but because InDesign doesn’t allow non-contiguous selections, you wouldn’t be able to replace anything.

    P.

  • March 4, 2019 at 10:42 am #114722
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    Hi Peter,

    That makes sense re: non-contiguous selections. Thanks for that solution. This appears to be finding a bit too much sometimes, though. For the above selection it worked fine for all of them except this:

    13:39 Jim: Go to mine
    13:39 Jane: Arrr
    13:39 Jane: *vie
    13:39 Jane: No no it’s okay
    13:39 Jim: No it’s really okay

    In this one it found

    13:39 Jane: Arrr
    13:39 Jane:

    So would delete/replace one of the messages if used.

    Sorry, I know I am being demanding! Any idea why it’s doing that?

  • March 5, 2019 at 1:44 am #114739
    Peter Kahrel

    Participant

    It’s caused by the identical times. If you change 13:39 to any other time in ’13:39 Jane: No no it’s okay’ the problem doesn’t occur. But since you can do only every other line, not every line, the grep query is of limited use anyway. A script would probably be more useful.

  • March 5, 2019 at 2:08 am #114740
    Anonymous

    Inactive

    Thanks Peter – I’ll try to work out using a combination – maybe where I remove the times first, but either way, this has been really useful, so thanks so much for your help.

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