* Note fields contain formatting characters

[David Potter]

Hi Forum

After migrating my TMG 9.05 database into FH. Many of my Note and Source Note fields contain Text formatting characters such as the term [BOLD] and small square boxes (see attached image). See Example Below. Is there anyway to clean this up by mass change or plug-in?

William Charles Potter: BXCD 662465 Civil Registration event: Birth Name: [BOLD:]POTTER, William Charles[:BOLD] Registration District: [BOLD:]Tewkesbury[:BOLD] County: [BOLD:]Gloucestershire[:BOLD] Year of Registration: [BOLD:]1867[:BOLD] Month of Quarter: [BOLD:]Jul-Aug-Sep[:BOLD] Mother's Maiden Name: [BOLD:]Not available before 1911 Q3[:BOLD] Volume No: [BOLD:]6A[:BOLD] Page No: [BOLD:]430[:BOLD]Certificate obtained by David Potter Duplicate provided by Raymond Potter - BXBZ 818743


Many Thanks and Kind regards

David Potter

[tatewise]

Yes David, check the how_to:import_from_tmg|> Import from The Master Genealogist (TMG) advice and it explains what to do.

[David Potter]

Hi Mike

Many thanks for your reply. I solved the [BOLD:] etc. formatting issue with the plugin described in the TMG issue section. But nothing there to describe how I solve this 'box' character issue. See my previous attachment if you need to see it.

Can you help further with this issue?

Much appreciated - and loving this FH6 over TMG. Wish I'd found it 8 years ago!

BR

David

[tatewise]

Not sure what the 'box' character is. May be some control character.
If you open the Text From Source edit box by clicking [...] button on its right-hand end, what is shown then?
Otherwise, examine the Gedcom file, or copy and paste into a text editor.

Try selecting that 'box' character and paste it into the Search and Replace Plugin Search box in Plain Text Mode and remove it as you did with format controls.

[mjashby]

Mike,

I've seen the 'box' character appear occasionally when copying text from other applications, primarily Plain Text Editors, but not Word Processors. It seems to be a 'Carriage Return' character.

Mervyn

[AnneEast]

Yes, I've seen that box character and noticed it appeared (does it still, not sure?) when I try to make a new paragraph, using 'return', in a note.
Anne

[David Potter]

Hi All

Thanks for the input. I agree it appears to be a Carriage Return character, or Line Feed. I'm not sure if these are the same things. The Find / Replace tool only goes so far. So it appears the box is visible to the eye, but not always 'found' when using the F/R tool set. I am manually cleaning up right now. But that is a small price to pay to move from TMG into something much more modern and flexible. Thanks all for your help here.

BR

David

[Valkrider]

You can always use Notepad++ or other Plain Text editor to strip all those characters for you from your gedcom file.

[David Potter]

Thanks for the tip. I will give that a try.


David

[tatewise]

The 'box' is simply a place-holder to signal where the normally invisible control character exists.
New-line/Line Feed (Code 10) and Carriage-return (Code 13) are different characters.
There is a whole set of control characters from Null (Code 00) thru Horizontal Tab (Code 9) to Unit Separator (Code 31) and Space is Code 32.
Have you opened the Edit window by clicking the [...] Edit button to right of Text From Source box, etc?
How do those characters appear there?
Line Feed should start text on a new line, and Horizontal Tab will tab to next column, but the others will do little or nothing.

[David Potter]

Hi Mike

Thanks for the update.

The Edit Window shows exactly the same.

BR

David

[David Potter]

Hi All Contributors to this Post

FYI

Notepad ++ describes this box as an ASCII attribute with CAN as the description and 24 as its ASCII character value. I'm struggling with Notepad ++ and cannot find a way to remove this box. Any Notepad++ experts out there - all suggestions welcome.

BR

David

[Valkrider]

David

Send me a small file by PM and I will check it out in Notepad++ for you.

I did a screenshot video on tidying up SSDI data in Notepad++ that may help you it is at https://youtu.be/Aq9LUFbHbVk about 4 minutes in is where I start using the various Notepad++ tools to delete various characters in the file.

[David Potter]

Hi Colin

Many thanks. Your video solved the problem. Where you select the offending data and paste it into the Find box. I highlighted the ASCII 'CAN' marker, copy pasted it into the Find box where it was then shown as the Box symbol and replaced with Blank. Bingo.

Thank you so much that will save a lot of manual correction.

BR

David

[Valkrider]

David,

Great, I am glad it helped. Once you understand how to do changes like this in Notepad++ it makes it so much simpler. It is a very powerful tool.