Template:Removing bracketed info

From Cannabis
Jump to navigation Jump to search

How the private info was removed from the city list.

The private [bracketed] info in the detailed city list in the periodic emails from Dana Beal (or his compatriots) to organizers has been removed by using the freeware NoteTab Light. Here is how:

Paste the city list into a new page in NoteTab Light (click "New" from the File menu). Then follow these instructions below in order. Most are done by using the "replace" tool in the search menu. Select "all" from the "find and replace" dialog box.

1. Add blank lines if necessary by clicking the enter key to separate cities listed together in the same paragraph. Make sure each city is in one paragraph, with one blank line between each city.

2. Eliminate spaces on blank lines between cities. This is essential for some later steps to work correctly. To do so replace

^p
(with a space after ^p)
with
^p
(no space after ^p)
Repeat until no spaces remain on blank lines.

3. Remove extra blank lines, too. A fast way to remove extra lines is to replace ^p^p^p with ^p^p

4. Create complete paragraphs by removing line breaks (the cause of laddered text) within paragraphs. This is very important preparation for step 11 (removing private bracketed info). Click "Select All" from the Edit menu. Then click "Join Lines" from the Modify/Lines menu. Removing bracketed info only works correctly within unbroken paragraphs that don't have line breaks within the paragraphs. Also, the paragraphs must be separated by blank lines with no spaces on the blank lines. Since there is nothing on the blank lines there will be no cities combined with other cities.

5. Remove "mailto:" from all email addresses, and replace with nothing.

6. Replace > with > and a space after it.

7. Replace all double spaces with single spaces. Repeat until no double spaces remain.

8. Add http:// to the front of all URLs that start with www. The wiki software makes all URLs starting with http clickable. Replace

www
with
http://www
(be sure there is a space in front of both www and http://www in the NoteTab replace form)

9. Add http://www in front of incomplete myspace.com URLs. Replace

myspace.com
with
http://www.myspace.com
(be sure there is a space in front of both myspace.com and http://www.myspace.com in the NoteTab replace form)

10. Replace @ by (at) in all email addresses in order to stop spambots from harvesting email addresses too easily.

11. Remove the bracketed info. To remove the bracketed info correctly you must use the latest version of the freeware Notetab Light. Older versions can remove incorrect info. Click the Replace command in the Search menu. A "find and replace" dialog box will show up. Choose "All" from the dropdown menu for search (in the dialog box). For this find-and-replace task only: Put a checkmark in the spot for "Regular Exp." It stands for "Regular Expression." In the top form line type or paste in this regular expression:

\[.*?]
In the "Replace with" form just put in a period. Then click "Replace All". It only takes a second to remove all the private info.

12. Use the find command to search for beginning or ending [brackets] remaining on the page. Then manually remove any remaining private info. There shouldn't be any remaining private info if ALL of the above steps are done. Sometimes a bracket is missing. Let Dana Beal, or whoever is emailing out the city, know.

13. Correct any typos, spelling etc.. Make sure there is a space on each end of URLs and email addresses. This allows people to recognize them correctly. Also, the wiki software makes full URLs clickable if they start with http://

For more info on regular expressions see the help menu in Notetab, and click on "Help on Regular Expressions." See these wikipedia pages:

See also:

Any private info that remains is there because it was not enclosed by standard [brackets] on both ends. {Curly brackets} do not work. Contact Dana Beal, or whoever is emailing out the city list, to point out problems with bracket placement.