How to tell BC to ignore straight vs curly quotes?

[K.J.]

Hi. Thanks in advance. Happy new year, too.

I'm working with two non-editable PDF files. The older one has straight quotes and the newer one has curly quotes. Is there any way I can get BC to ignore those as being different? I took a look around and I didn't readily see a way to do this. I'm pretty new to BC so it may be quite clear to everyone but me.

I have a project due by COB Tuesday and this would help considerably in speeding up the time it takes for my reviews.

Again, thanks everyone.

K.J.

[Chris]

There are two ways to ignore the straight to curly quotes change.

1. Make straight and curly quote characters unimportant:

Load the files in the Text Compare.
Click the Rules toolbar button.
In the Unimportant Text section, click +.
Text to find: "
Repeat for opening and closing curly quotes.
In the main Text Compare window, make sure View > Ignore Unimportant Differences is turned on.

The above settings will also hide differences if a straight or curly quote exists only on one side.

2. Define curly quotes on the left as a replacement with straight quotes on the right.

Replacements are only available in Beyond Compare Pro. If you have a standard license, this method is not available. The advantage of a replacement is a straight or curly quote that only exists on one side will show as a difference, unlike method 1.

Load the two files in the Text Compare with the curly quotes file on the left.
Click the Rules toolbar button.
Go to the Replacements tab.
Click +.
Text to find: “
Replace with: "
Repeat for the closing curly quote.
Make sure View > Ignore Unimportant Differences is turned on.

[K.J.]

Hi and thank you for your response! Happy new years too.

I'm using BC 4. I have to take into account, context. Meaning, If something is quoted and the only difference is straight vs curly, BC will show them as different. This is exactly what I'd like to ignore. However, if there is a rogue quote lurking around in the text, that I want to be able to find.

So how do I define contextually, leaving curly vs straight quotes as a minor difference to be ignored if the context is correct, but flag quotes that are rogue?

If I make them all unimportant, it won't find a rogue quote, will it?

Thanks again.

There are two ways to ignore the straight to curly quotes change.

1. Make straight and curly quote characters unimportant:

Load the files in the Text Compare.
Click the Rules toolbar button.
In the Unimportant Text section, click +.
Text to find: "
Repeat for opening and closing curly quotes.
In the main Text Compare window, make sure View > Ignore Unimportant Differences is turned on.

The above settings will also hide differences if a straight or curly quote exists only on one side.

2. Define curly quotes on the left as a replacement with straight quotes on the right.

Replacements are only available in Beyond Compare Pro. If you have a standard license, this method is not available. The advantage of a replacement is a straight or curly quote that only exists on one side will show as a difference, unlike method 1.

Load the two files in the Text Compare with the curly quotes file on the left.
Click the Rules toolbar button.
Go to the Replacements tab.
Click +.
Text to find: “
Replace with: "
Repeat for the closing curly quote.
Make sure View > Ignore Unimportant Differences is turned on.

[Chris]

The instructions in item 2 do exactly what you're asking for. Item 2 in my previous post will ignore curly to straight quote changes while still showing rogue quotes (only on one side) as different. The only limitation is that item 2 requires a Beyond Compare Pro license.

[K.J.]

Excellent - Thanks!!