#24 Disappearing symbols on subtitle division

[Templayer]

This has been a problem since the original Subtitle Workshop. And it just happened to me now with the newest Classic version, so I'm making a ticket for it.

Sometimes, certain symbols are erased when the CTRL+SHIFT+D dialog is used to divide lines.

Rarely, it removes some line endings. I.e. having a subtitle with three lines with two line breaks and then I use the Divide lines dialog to split those into two subtitles, one will get into a standalone subtitle, while the other two lines are mashed together without the line break that was originally between them. But that occurs only sometimes, and I do not know the catalyst for that.

However, that is not the situation that just occurred. I had the following subtitle (with a line break between the two "-" symbols):

Pak tu máme bitový tok. Spousta lidí si myslí, že větší bitový tok znamená větší kvalitu -

- ne nutně tomu tak musí být.

Dividing this into two subtitles yielded a corrupt result:

First subtitle:
Pak tu máme bitový tok. Spousta lidí si myslí, že větší bitový tok znamená větší kvalitu -

Second subtitle:
ne nutně tomu tak musí být.

"-" and " " got removed from the second line for some reason. Maybe it detected "-" as a whitespace character? Something screwy is going on there.

Also, if there is trimming during line division, I would expect a checkbox labelled Trim that would enable me to disable that function. Not that this would help much in this case - neither line breaks nor the "-" should have been trimmed in the first place.

[Templayer]

EDIT:

"neither line breaks nor the "-" should have been trimmed in the first place."

should have been:

"neither line breaks (in the previously mentioned case) nor the "-" (in this case) should have been trimmed in the first place."

[Templayer]

Just had the line break deletion occur.

The result of this division:

Mezitím co prokládané ("i" jako interlaced) má řádky zleva doprava.
Takže jdete zleva doprava, pak zprava doleva.
Poté opět zleva doprava, a zprava doleva.

Was:
Mezitím co prokládané ("i" jako interlaced) má řádky zleva doprava.

And:
Takže jdete zleva doprava, pak zprava doleva. Poté opět zleva doprava, a zprava doleva.

The line break between the second and third line got eaten.

[Templayer]

And it was replaced with " ".

[Kameleon_]

Thanks for the report. I will have a look.

[Templayer]

I'm reporting another form of rogue behavior this results in.

I've split this: (notice where the line breaks are)

Když nahráváte a editujete a vytváříte finální render je docela důležité ponechat stejnou snímkovací frekvenci.
Nebo můžete mít problémy jako interpolované snímky, kde video pak vypadá "duší" - vytváří tzv. "duší" efekt,...
...a v tomto bodě začne velikost výsledného videa bobtnat do nadměrného množství.

This resulted in these two subtitles:

Když nahráváte a editujete a vytváříte finální render je docela důležité ponechat stejnou snímkovací frekvenci.

Nebo můžete mít problémy jako interpolované snímky, kde video pak vypadá "duší" - vytváří tzv.
"duší" efekt,... ...a v tomto bodě začne velikost výsledného videa bobtnat do nadměrného množství.

The line break between "... ..." was removed and replaced by a whitespace... AND!!! Subtitle Workshop added a rogue linebreak after "tzv." to compensate. Basically, it moved the line break around and put it into a spot where it did make sense length-wise, but not text/grammar-wise.

A checkbox "Do not modify linebreaks" would really come in handy. Some people might like it (if they don't make their own line breaks), but some of us do add them ourselves and then we hate it. Of course, if the split occurs at a linebreak, the linebreak should be removed, but not in any other case if that option would be checked.

[Kameleon_]

Hi Templayer,

A checkbox "Do not modify linebreaks" would really come in handy. Some people might like it (if they don't make their own line breaks), but some of us do add them ourselves and then we hate it. Of course, if the split occurs at a linebreak, the linebreak should be removed, but not in any other case if that option would be checked.

If you switch off "Smart Line Adjust Automatically" in "Settings Advanced" then

• Linebreaks will not be replaced by spaces in the divided up parts
• No extra line breaks will be inserted if a part is too long
  Is this a solution to above problem?

I see in the code that after a division

• dashes etc at the first position are deleted in the parts (unconditionally)
• the parts are trimmed (leading and trailing spaces are deleted) (unconditionally)
  I assume you do not want this to happen?

[Templayer]

If you switch off "Smart Line Adjust Automatically" in "Settings Advanced" then

• Linebreaks will not be replaced by spaces in the divided up parts
• No extra line breaks will be inserted if a part is too long

Didn't expect the first point ("Linebreaks will not be replaced by spaces in the divided up parts") do occur for that. Maybe that should be a standalone toggle?

I see in the code that after a division

• dashes etc at the first position are deleted in the parts (unconditionally)
• the parts are trimmed (leading and trailing spaces are deleted) (unconditionally)
  I assume you do not want this to happen?

I wish for both of these to be toggleable. In my specific case, I would have the first set as false and the second set as true, as long as it is ONLY pure whitespace chars (I've noticed and misused the fact that "////" as a standalone subtitle string line is considered and empty line, so I'm worried about it being deleted, which is something I do not wish to have happen).

[Kameleon_]

Didn't expect the first point ("Linebreaks will not be replaced by spaces in the divided up parts") do occur for that. Maybe that should be a standalone toggle?

Well, that is what "Smart Line Adjust" does here: it deletes the existing CRLF's and inserts a new one if a part is too long. You can uncheck "Smart Line Adjust Automatically" to prevent that. The actual smart line adjust function can do much more, but only above is done here.

---

I wish for both of these to be toggleable. In my specific case, I would have the first set as false and the second set as true, as long as it is ONLY pure whitespace chars (I've noticed and misused the fact that "////" as a standalone subtitle string line is considered and empty line, so I'm worried about it being deleted, which is something I do not wish to have happen).

I am very reluctant to create some new setting, there are already dozens of them.
I suggest the following:

• for the the deleting of "Dashes" at the beginning of a part: only to be done if the "-" on first line in Tools->Information & Errors->Settings->Fix is checked .
• for the trimming of the leading and trailing spaces of a part: only to be done if "Enters and spaces at beginning and end" in Tools->Information & Errors->Settings->Unnecessary spaces->Fix is checked.

[Templayer]

Yes, if the division dialog used those settings that would be enough.

I just tried toggling them off. Not only it doesn't apply for now, I think I also found a new error! Look for the lblLength2 in the attached printscreen. Didn't try confirming that. That could very well result in a crash and right now I need everything as stable as it can be. :P

[Kameleon_]

Yes, if the division dialog used those settings that would be enough.

Ok, thanks. Will be implemented in v6.2.7.

[Kameleon_]

I just tried toggling them off. Not only it doesn't apply for now, I think I also found a new error! Look for the lblLength2 in the attached printscreen. Didn't try confirming that. That could very well result in a crash and right now I need everything as stable as it can be. :P

With what subtitle string did you accomplish that? Anyway, I know the reason for it and it will be solved in v6.2.7.

[Templayer]

The subtitle that caused that can be seen in the printscreen as well.

[Kameleon_]

Solved/Implemented in version 6.2.7.