How can I make Document Architect not use "shun chars"?

[AndyEsslinger]

Fellow Adepters,

I just hit the strangest problem. I used Arbortext Document Architect 5.3m040 to edit a new SGML DTD. When I tried to compile the DTD it failed. It produced this error message:








Root cause: The Arbortext DTD editor used illegal characters such as a long dash where I entered two hyphens and curly quotes instead of straight quotes in a place where I typed in a comment:




I discovered that the illegal characters were entered any time I tried to type in something that has a Microsoft alternate character, but unlike MS, Arbortext doesn't seem to provide a way to turn off this behavior.

What is the magic setting to make Arbortext's DTD editor use only legal characters?

I know that version 5.3m040 is not the most current (Standard support for v5.3 ended March 1, 2011), but I cannot upgrade to 5.4 or a higher version. I'm hoping that there is a way to change it in this version.

Thanks,
-Andy
\ / Andy Esslinger LM Aero - Tech Order Data
______-/\-______ (817) 279-0442 1 Lockheed Blvd, MZ 4285
\_\/_/ (817) 777-3047 Fort Worth, TX 76108-3916

[bibach]

Hi, Andy...

I just tried editing a new SGML DTD with Architect 5.3 M010 and did not see
this behavior with dashes or quotes. Have you tried unsetting APTCUSTOM
and the like to make sure you have a "clean" environment?

Architect doesn't seem to allow a command line, so it doesn't seem there
would be a way to tweak the setup from within it, though I imagine the
customization machinery isn't completely ignored.

-Brandon 🙂

[BobSpangenburg]

Andy,

Since this behavior is the default by the Editor, it will cycle through the two quotes and three dashes each time you press the key. Which one it starts with is determined by the character before the cursor.

To the best of my knowledge, there are at least 3 methods to attack this. The first is through the "charSubFilter.ent" file. You can search for this method in the Help Center. I haven't used it.

The second is through the DCF file, but of course you're not using a DCF when you're working on a DTD.

The third method (the one I use to remove this behavior) is to remap the the keys. In my initialization file, I map the single quote, double quote and dash key to themselves. For example:

map all - { insert( "-" ) ; }

This effectively removes the automatic character substitution always giving you the basic "dash".

Hope this helps,

Bob

In Reply to Andy Esslinger:

Fellow Adepters,

I just hit the strangest problem. I used Arbortext Document Architect 5.3m040 to edit a new SGML DTD. When I tried to compile the DTD it failed. It produced this error message:








Root cause: The Arbortext DTD editor used illegal characters such as a long dash where I entered two hyphens and curly quotes instead of straight quotes in a place where I typed in a comment:




I discovered that the illegal characters were entered any time I tried to type in something that has a Microsoft alternate character, but unlike MS, Arbortext doesn't seem to provide a way to turn off this behavior.

What is the magic setting to make Arbortext's DTD editor use only legal characters?

I know that version 5.3m040 is not the most current (Standard support for v5.3 ended March 1, 2011), but I cannot upgrade to 5.4 or a higher version. I'm hoping that there is a way to change it in this version.

Thanks,
-Andy
\ / Andy Esslinger LM Aero - Tech Order Data
______-/\-______ (817) 279-0442 1 Lockheed Blvd, MZ 4285
\_\/_/ (817) 777-3047 Fort Worth, TX 76108-3916

[AndyEsslinger]

No luck.

The cycling through two quotes and three dashes does nothing. For entering quotes they just produce more curly quotes; for the dashes it allows two keystrokes and then ignores any further entries with dash key. Completely ignored seems to sum it up, so it's not key cycling.

It's happening on all machines - Actually checked two Windows XPSP2 with 3 gig RAM and two Windows 7 SP1 with 4 GIG of RAM. - Same problem on all.

Could this be a problem imposed with Office 2007? Maybe they replaced one of the common control dlls. That used to be a problem with Windows 98.


APTCUSTOM is set to C:\CUSTOM which is where my custom directory is located.

There are no custom applications installed - just pure SGML/FOSI. There is no %APTCUSTOM%\init directory and no %APTCUSTOM%\scripts directory.

[cid:image001.png@01CD8A81.A2058F20]

The Use Smart Insert Feature is unchecked. No DITA stuff installed



In %APTCUSTOM%\lib\.feature.cf:
# Defines optional components installed at this site
set featurePrintPublishing=on
# Remaining features off
set feature3B2=off
set featureAdapterDocumentum=off
set featureAdapterFileNET=off
set featureAdapterIBMDM=off
set featureAdapterInterwoven=off
set featureAdapterOracleiFS=off
set featureAdapterWindchill=off
set featureAdapterXMLDocumentum=off
set featureDCAM=off
set featureDLM=off
set featureDMPPublishing=off
set featureDMS=off
set featureImportExport=off
set featureImportMapping=off
set featureInterchange=off
set featureWebPublishing=off
set featureXMLAuthority=off




\ / Andy Esslinger LM Aero – Tech Order Data
______-/\-______ (817) 279-0442 1 Lockheed Blvd, MZ 4285
\_\/_/ (817) 777-3047 Fort Worth, TX 76108-3916

[BobSpangenburg]

Andy,

I've got the following code in all my custom\init envirornments for the start up files:

---

# Map '-' to be ‐ thereby eliminating character substitution

map all - {

insert( "-" ) ;

}

# Map NumPad '-' to be ‐ thereby eliminating character substitution

map all Num_- {

insert( "-" ) ;

}

# Map " to be &qu; thereby eliminating character substitution

map all " {

insert( " ) ;

}

# Map " to be ' thereby eliminating character substitution '

map all ' {

insert( " ) ;

}

---

With this code inactive, if I type 2 '-' back-to-back, I get the single emdash. If I use the <ctrl+shift+->, I get 2 '-' characters, but I believe this behavior is stictly within the DTD editor.

With this code active, no matter where I type within the Arbortext evnironment, I get the expected keystrokes giving the expected characters. If I want an en-dash or em-dash, I can use the <ctrl+-> to cycle to the one I want. As for the curly quotes, we simply don't use them.

I've used this method for years. It effectly turns off the character substitution throughout the Arbortext suite.

Hope this helps,

Bob

[AndyEsslinger]

Bob,

Nice thought, but some of my users do use the cyclic - – — (‐ – —), so I can't disable it.

I noticed that the cyclic character substitution doesn't work in the DTD Editor of Document Architect and there is no way to turn it on, so I don't think character substitution has anything to do with the problem.

At first I thought it was a Windows 7 artifact but the problem persists in Windows XP. I am now wondering if it has something to do with MS Office 2007.

I would like to remove Office 2007 and install Office 2003, but the help desk is not helpful. You have heard of "colorful" terms; well the help desk personnel say "no" in an absolutely "colorless" way. I may uninstall office completely and see what happens, but I'm up to my neck in alligators this week.

I appreciate the suggestions from the people that chimed in. However, I have a workaround named "Notepad" and another named "WordPad" and I can manually edit DTD files just fine.

-Andy
\ / Andy Esslinger LM Aero – Tech Order Data
______-/\-______ (817) 279-0442 1 Lockheed Blvd, MZ 4285
\_\/_/ (817) 777-3047 Fort Worth, TX 76108-3916

[ebenton]

Andy,
I think that MS Office 2003 is available through Lockheed’s “Run Advertised Programs”. (Control panel > Programs… in Windows 7).