Text Cleaner was created with the design professional in mind, and is now a valuable tool for Webmasters as well. Clients frequently supply design studios with text that in most instances contains incorrect typographical characters and other input errors, while Webmasters receive text from designers that contains characters that need to be changed to their simpler, HTML compatible counterparts. Traditionally, these items would have to be changed one at a time using a layout or word processing application. With Text Cleaner, conversions are done all at once and in as many iterations as needed.
Text Cleaner will quickly find typical entry errors and replace inappropriate characters with correct ones, bringing your text up to traditional typesetting or Web standards. Fi and fl ligatures, curly quotes, ellipses, em and en dashes are set or removed. Multiple instances of spaces, tabs and returns are eliminated in one fell swoop.
Without Text Cleaner, repeated find-and-replace searches would be required. For example, if there were four tabs together in a document, a search-and-replace would change the first two to one, then the next two to one. The result would be another two tabs, but this wouldn’t be found until scanning through the entire document then starting again from the beginning. Imagine how many searches would be required if there were a lot of tabs together! Text Cleaner does all the repetitive work
for you.
Text Cleaner removes other famous blunder combinations too—like spaces around tabs, returns and dashes. Curly quotes can be set while retaining inch and foot measurement markings and correct apostrophes for years like ’90 and 90’s. Text from an email message that has returns after every line can be converted to “wrapped” text and greater-than symbols used for email quotations cleaned out instantly. These conversions are all performed in the best possible sequence to avoid creating the same or worse conditions.
What is Lite about Text Cleaner Lite?
Text Cleaner Lite is freeware. It may be distributed free of charge as long as all documentation accompanies it. The full version of Text Cleaner is a commercial package and has addtional features including:
1. Ability to clean saved text files.
2. Drag and drop cleaning with DropClean™
3. QuarkXpress users can retain style information
4. User Presets
5. User’s Guide in HTML and Acrobat PDF formats with conversion table
6. Technical support by email, fax or phone
To order the full version of Text Cleaner, open the “Text Cleaner Order Form” document included with this package or order on the Web at www.studio405.com/textcleaner/.
System Requirements
Text Cleaner Lite requires a Mac OS compatible computer with 2 megabytes of free hard drive space, and operating system version 7.0 or higher with 2,000K of available RAM.
Installation
Drag the Text Cleaner Lite folder to a folder of your choice on your hard drive.
To launch Text Cleaner Lite, open the folder and double-click the Text Cleaner Lite icon.
The Interface
The interface is clean and easy to understand. Each check box lists a conversion. The buttons below the check box area are used to clean the text and to clear settings or select defaults.
What is Panorama?
When you open Text Cleaner, the Panorama application launches, then the Text Cleaner Lite splash screen appears. Panorama is the database engine used to create Text Cleaner. To find out more about Panorama, call ProVUE Development at 714-841-7779, or visit their Web site at www.provue.com.
CLEANING TEXT
Performing the cleaning operation is simple. Use the check boxes to select your options, then use copy and paste as described below.
1. In your layout or word processing application, open the document you want to clean.
2. Highlight the text to be cleaned, then select “Copy” from the Edit menu.
3. Activate Text Cleaner Lite by clicking its window or Launching it from the Finder.
4. Push the “Clean Clipboard” button.
5. Go back to your document, which still has the text selected.
6. Select “Paste” to replace the old text with the new, cleaned text.
Cleaning Email Messages
Text from email messages often has a return after every line. Text Cleaner can convert this text back to “wrapped” text. In the Text Cleaner window, check the option “Line breaks to wrapped text.” You will get a caution message. This is because you should only use this option if the text you’re cleaning has an extra return after every line. To clean out email quotes, which are designated by the greater-than symbol, check the option “Remove email quote symbols (>).” A dialog box will appear asking if you want to replace apparent email quote symbols or replace all greater-than symbols. Replacing all greater-than symbols is more thorough, but could result in altering math formulas or URL indicators such as <http://www.studio405.com/textcleaner>.
Page Breaks
You know that irritating little down arrow that forces the text to the next column or page in QuarkXpress? If you select the “Page break to return” option, it’s changed to a return so you can decide where to break the text.
SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS
File Formats and Styles
Formatting of text may not be retained after cleaning. For this reason, it is better to clean the text before you format it. If you’re a QuarkXpress user, you can preserve all styling by using the full version of Text Cleaner.
Limitations of Using Copy and Paste (Clean Clipboard)
The “Clean Clipboard” conversion has a size limit of 32K. If the text exceeds this limit, Text Cleaner will display a warning that any text beyond the 32K limit will be removed. In this case you should save your text as a plain text file, then use the “Clean File…” button. The warning will let you cancel the conversion or continue anyway. Note: “Clean File…” is only available in the full version of Text Cleaner.
Cleaning Conflicts
A few cleaning options might not make sense to use at the same time, particularly when removing traditional typesetting marks for Web or email use. Here are some combinations to watch out for.
If “En dash to space hyphen space” is selected:
Selecting “Remove space before/after hyphen” will result in hyphens with no spaces around them instead of space hyphen space. Selecting “Hyphen between numbers to en dash” will result in en dashes between numbers, even though all other en dashes have been changed to space hyphen space. In this case it might be better to perform “Hyphen between numbers to en dash” by itself, then run Text Cleaner again with “En dash to space hyphen space.”
If “Curly quote to straight quote” is selected:
Selecting “Correct apostrophe for years” will result in curly apostrophes for year abbreviations like ’98 or 90’s, while
all other quotes will be straight.
Previous Panorama Users
If you had Panorama installed before purchasing Text Cleaner, you must have at least version 3.15. If you have version 3.1 or higher, you can replace your Panorama application with the one from the Text Cleaner folder. Make sure you have only one copy of the Panorama application on your drive.
CUSTOMIZING
Window Background Color
The background may be changed easily by selecting “Background Color…” from the View menu. The Mac
OS color picker window will appear, where a new color may be specified.
Scrubbing Sounds
The scrubbing sounds let you know that Text Cleaner is still at work, but if you don’t like them you can select “Scrubbing Sounds” from the Clean menu to toggle the scrubbing off and on. Text Cleaner will clean faster without the scrubbing, but not as much fun.
Warnings
When enabling some conversion options, warnings will appear to inform you of ramifications that could affect
the text, depending on its contents. If you would rather not see these dialog boxes, select “Warnings” from the Clean menu to toggle the warnings off and on. Note that disabling warnings will also disable the dialog box that allows selection of the email quote removal method used.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q: Why is there no “Save” command?
A: Text Cleaner saves your changes automatically.
Q: Text Cleaner is fast, but is there a way to make it faster?
A: Turning off the scrubbing sounds will turbo-charge Text Cleaner, but you won’t have as much fun!
Q: What is the Module menu for?
A: This is for future cleaning modules when available.
Q: Why doesn’t Text Cleaner create ffl and ffi ligatures?
A: While most Macintosh fonts support fi and fl ligatures, ffi and ffl ligatures are often not supported.
Q: Why do I occasionally seem to get inconsistent results with quotations, measurements and years?
A: Text Cleaner uses the text near a quote mark to determine the type of mark required. Some types of incorrect input may present problems. For example, if the text contains a quote mark with spaces on both sides of it, Text Cleaner will not know whether to use an open or closed quote. Selecting text from the beginning of a sentence will also provide better cleaning.
ERROR MESSAGES
Disk Error -120
This means Text Cleaner cannot find needed resources. Make sure Text Cleaner and the “•Resources” folder are together in the same folder.
HELP
Onscreen
You can get on-screen detailed descriptions of each cleaning option. If you’re using Mac OS 8, select “Show Balloons” from the Help menu. If you’re using Mac OS 7.5 or 7.6, select “Show Balloons” from the Apple Guide menu, which is the menu with the question mark on the upper right corner of your monitor. Now move your cursor over each checkbox area and balloons will appear with descriptive text. To turn Balloon Help off, return to the menu and select “Hide Balloons.”
Technical Support
Technical support can be obtained by sending email to support@studio405.com.
ABOUT STUDIO 405
Studio 405 is a computer consulting firm and graphic design studio. To find out more, visit our Web site at www.studio405.com or call 301-270-8445. For Text Cleaner information, send email to 405ware@studio405.com or go to Text Cleaner on the Web at www.studio405.com/textcleaner/.
LEGAL MATTERS
This software is provided “as is” with no warranty of any kind. Liability is limited to replacement disks and in no event will Studio 405, Inc. be liable for direct or indirect damages arising from your use or inability to use the software.
Text Cleaner Lite may be freely distributed but must be accompanied by this entire, unaltered documentation as well as the Text Cleaner Order Form. Text Cleaner and DropClean are trademarks of Studio 405, Inc., Panorama is a trademark of the ProVUE Development Corporation, QuarkXpress is a trademark of Quark, Inc., Macintosh is a trademark of Apple Computer.
Copyright 1999 by Studio 405, Inc., all rights reserved.
