Chapter numbering in selector

Current the three items I’ve highlighted here seems to be tied together. If I use \c, they pull in a number, but if I use \cp, they use whatever the text for \cp is. I think that maybe if I define something in the main text with \cl it will be formatted differently, but my tests have create odd results at different times. Also, it appears that I have to put \cl after \c to get SAB to read it, which isn’t the way USFM defines the spec.

Is there any way to define different values in the different locations here?


Secondly, is there a way to format the chapter selector so that it is only 3 or 4 columns wide, rather than 5, so that I can have more text in that space?

Why are you using “Chap”?

Keep in mind:

  • See Chapters and Verses — Unified Standard Format Markers 3.0.0 documentation

  • \cl is for chapter label e.g. Chapter 1 or Psalm 1.
    Used once before chapter 1 will apply the label to the whole book.
    If SAB does not support this correctly, it needs to be added to the bug list.
    Used after the \c will require you to add it after every \c.
    Using both before and after \c might cause a conflict in SAB.

  • \cp is for publisher’s chapter, to override the normal numbering system
    e.g. Ester Greek (ESG) might need this where there are chapters that need to display in an order not recognized by Paratext or using letters, etc. e.g.
    ESG 1:0 “\cp 10”
    ESG 2:0 “\cp 11”
    ESG 3:0 “\cp 12”
    ESG 4:0 “\cp 13”
    ESG 5:0 “\cp 14”
    ESG 6:0 “\cp 15”
    ESG 7:0 “\cp 16”

  • You might be able to combine both \cl and \cp e.g.
    \cl Psalm
    \c 1
    \cp A
    Should give you Psalm A instead of just 1 for the first chapter. You will have to test this is you need to do this.

By different locations, do you mean in the chapter/verse selector and in the text or at each chapter?

I would also like more control over the columns and rows, including spacing. You can add a feature request if you are not able to do so with the styles.

Thank you for the reply. I hadn’t realized that the USFM documentation was spelling out two different use cases for \cl.

The first case, when \cl precedes \c 1 once in the file and then applies to every chapter, does not work in SAB. I’ve written it up.

The second case works, and it can be used in combination with \cp. So these lines:

\c 1
\cl chapter the 1
\cp Chap 1

Result in this

That’s nice–it unlinks what shows up in the header and the selector from what displays in the text. But really I’d like to disconnect the first two circled parts–so that “Chap 1” show up in the dark green header, but just “1” shows up in the light green selector area.


Why “Chap”? Well, this is (hopefully obviously) just an English file I’ve thrown together for testing and display. In the real project I’m working with the people group aren’t used to Biblical notation so don’t know the whole “book_name space chapter_number colon verse_number” format that Westerners are used to. So if (during regular reading when the chapter selector isn’t actually opened) they glance up at the dark green area and see “Genesis 1”, they don’t understand what the “1” means.


I don’t have any idea how I’d use styles to format the size of the columns and rows, so I’ll submit a feature request.

Thanks for testing this out and helping me understand it better.

\cl

Added after each chapter, the \cl will display in the text as a heading instead of the drop cap chapter number. It will not included the chapter number (or \cp publishers chapter number) in the text.

\c & \cp

Because SAB displays the \c in the chapter selector, it allows you to add different text in the chapter selector using the \cp to override the \c.

Unfortunately this requires adding a lot of additional text to your source text.

Changes

You might be able to use a regular expression in Changes if there is a pattern to these e.g.

Find expression:

(\\c (\d+))

Replace expression:

\1\r\n\cl chapter the \2\r\n\cp Chap \2

This won’t work where you want to replace the chapter number with a word, etc.

You might be able to add multiple regular expressions, but this could go up to 150 (the amount of chapters in Psalms) e.g.

Find expression:

(\\c 1)

Replace expression:

\1\r\n\cl chapter the first\r\n\cp Chap 1

Find expression:

(\\c 2)

Replace expression:

\1\r\n\cl chapter the second\r\n\cp Chap 2

etc. in which case it is better to do this to the text directly using regular expression. Paratext does have a tool for using regular expressions.

Thank you for the reply. Yes, I’m already using regular expressions to make the changes in SAB (since I’m not a contributor to the Paratext project).