PPTools/FAQ

Note The information on this page is at least 15 years out of date (in 2025) and should not be used for PPing

How do I ...?

This is a list of Frequently Asked Questions about how to do various tasks with the PPing Tools.

Run these tools online?

• PPTools online

"... remove trailing blanks?"

• In GutSweeper or GutWrench, Modify the text with this feature selected.
• This is done automatically when the text is rewrapped by RewrapIndent or GutHammer.
• In guiguts, run Fixup > Remove end-of-line Spaces.

"... clothe or flag naked hyphens and dashes?"

• In GutSweeper, Modify the text with this feature selected. This will automatically correct most such cases, and flag (with a "*") those it cannot correct (such as words hyphenated across a Page separator). Also, some badly formatted em-dashes and long dashes representing undisclosed words (such as "Mr. ----") may not be treated correctly; read the GSlog.txt file to make sure no errors have been introduced.

"... find mismatched italics markups?"

• In GutWrench, make a Page Map (before you have removed the Page Separators!), and look through the result (scroll through the textbox or read the file GWmaps.txt). This will flag pages having unequal numbers of opening and closing italics markups or odd numbers of low-line characters "_".

"... find missing italics markups?"

• In GutWrench, make a Page Map (before you have removed the Page Separators!), print the file GWmaps.txt (open it in a word-processing application and format it into two columns to save paper), and compare it with all the scan images (for speed and convenience, use IrfanView's slide-show feature). This also makes it easy to spot missing Thought Breaks and pages that should, but don't, start with a new paragraph.

"... find mismatched poetry markups?"

• In GutSweeper, Check the text.
• In RewrapIndent, this will be flagged during the initial check stage.
• In guiguts, use Search > Find Orphaned Brackets and Markup.

"... find missing poetry markups?"

• In GutSweeper, Check the text; if you are lucky, the poetry (or at least part of it) will be indented and thus flagged with an Alert as having a "double space outside markups".

"... clean up poetry markups to which proofers have added comments (such as '/* poetry')?"

• In GutSweeper, Modify the text.

"... find missing thought breaks?"

• In GutWrench, make a PageMap (before you have removed the Page Separators!), print the file GWmaps.txt (open it in a word-processing application and format it into two columns to save paper), and compare it with all the scan images (for speed and convenience, use IrfanView's slide-show feature).

"... correct badly formed 'Thought Breaks'?"

• In RewrapIndent, any line with five * and whitespace only is assumed to be a 'Thought Break' and silently corrected to the standard form
• Run GutAxe.
• In Guiguts, this is one of the Fixup > Run Fixup options.

"... shorten long lines left by the proofers?"

• In GutSweeper, Modify the text with "Divide Long Lines" selected.

"... remove Page Separators?"

• In GutWrench, Modify the text with this option selected.
• In GutHammer, this is also done automatically while Rewrapping the text.
• In guiguts, this is Fixup > Fix page separators

"... join short lines?"

• In GutSweeper, Modify the text with this option selected; this will join adjacent pairs of short lines that together will not exceed the specified maximum length.

"... check whether hyphenation (such as 'to-day' vs. 'today') is consistent?"

• In GutWrench, Map Hyphenations. This lists, first, all hyphenated words in the text, and second, occurrences of unhyphenated versions of any of the hyphenated words.
• In Guiguts, select Fixup > Run Word Frequency Routine, and then click Hyphens. Suspicious words (those that are unhyphenated but occur hyphenated elsewhere) are flagged by stars. To show only these, set the Suspects Only option.

"... correct common words which sometimes (perhaps formerly) have hyphens (e.g., "to-day" and "south-east") and accents (e.g., "élite" and "coöperate") and ligatures (e.g., 'Æsop' and 'mediæval')"?

• Run GutAxe.
• In guiguts, select Fixup > Run Word Frequency Routine, and then click accents. Suspicious words (those that are unaccented but occur with accents elsewhere) are flagged by stars. To show only these, set the Suspects Only option.

"... check whether any hyphens should really be dashes?"

• In GutWrench, Map Hyphenations. This lists all hyphenated words in the text; if any of these should really be dashes, it should be readily apparent.
• In guiguts, go to Fixup > Run word frequency routine and then click the hyphens button. If the "suspects only" option is off, you can see all hyphenated words.

"... check whether accented letters (such as 'elite' vs. 'élite' and 'mediaeval' vs. 'mediæval') are used consistently?"

• In GutWrench, Map Accented Words. This lists, first, all words with accented and ligature characters in the text, and second, occurrences of other versions of any of the accented words.
• In guiguts,

"... quickly correct some common stealth scannos?"

• Run GutAxe.
• In guiguts,

"... rewrap the text?"

• Use GutHammer.
• Use RewrapIndent.
• Use guiguts.

"... produce an HTML version?"

• Use guiguts.
• Use GutCutter (part of the GutWrench suite).
• Use Donovan's pg2html program.