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http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=67500
                 Issue #|67500
                 Summary|WILDCARDS in Replacement List
               Component|Word processor
                 Version|OOo 2.0.3
                Platform|All
                     URL|
              OS/Version|All
                  Status|UNCONFIRMED
       Status whiteboard|
                Keywords|
              Resolution|
              Issue type|FEATURE
                Priority|P3
            Subcomponent|code
             Assigned to|mru
             Reported by|discoleo





------- Additional comments from [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tue Jul 18 05:15:02 -0700 
2006 -------
Wildcards in Replacement List

One of the most useful features in OOo Writer is the replacement list. I rely
heavily on it and it greatly simplifies the writing of many documents.

However, there are some situations, where I need something more advanced.

To better understand my request, I will start with a common word in my
replacement list:
sx => susceptibil (English susceptible, I use it often when describing bacterial
susceptibilities to antibiotics)

While in English there is only one form, in many Latin languages (like Romanian,
but also Italian, French and many more), adjectives and nouns unfortunately must
conjugate depending on gender and number. Therefore at least 4 (2x2) forms exist
for any adjective (actually even more forms do exist and even nouns will be
conjugated in a complex fashion).

Lets look at the previous example:
m, singular: susceptibil
f, singular: susceptibila
m, plural: susceptibili
f, plural: susceptibile
(other forms are: susceptibilul, susceptibilii, susceptibilele)

It would be completely irrational to have (at least) 4 entries in the
replacement list for the same word. And it becomes even more impractical to
remember the shortcuts for all those entries.

My first impression was, why shouldn't I simply write 'sx' followed by all those
different endings and have the 'sx' inside e.g. 'sxa' or 'sxi' be automatically
expanded to 'susceptibil'. The problem is that only a word-delimited 'sx' will
be expanded.

Here is a wise solution to this problem: use wildcards!

In the foregoing example this would have looked like:
sx[aeilu]* => 'susceptibil\1' (where '\1' means to automatically append any
characters written after 'sx', but this could be implicit, without explicitly
writing the '\1' identifier);

The advantages are obvious, only one item is in the replacement list (list is
much shorter now) and there is only one shortcut to remember.

Why use wildcards and do not replace any occurrence of 'sx'?
Well, some words may contain the shortcut and we wouldn't like to expand that,
too. To illustrate this for 'sx': I also use 'sxt' as a shortcut for one
antibiotic (Cotrimoxazole = Trimethoprime + Sulfamethoxazole, classically
written as SXT). Another example would be:
rz => rezistent (English resistant)
rz[aei]* =>  'rezistent\1' , however Tarzan does contain an 'rz', too. (Well, I
do not often write the word Tarzan, but for the sake of perfection, I do prefer
the wildcards method.)

IF it takes more time to implement this feature, I would agree also with the
non-wildcard method to replace any occurrence of the shortcut. Alternatively,
define 2 types of replacement lists: one for replacements of every occurrence,
and one for replacements of only word-delimited shortcuts.

An added benefit of this feature is an elegant workaround for bug
http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=4579 : instead of defining
keyboard shortcuts for special characters, we define shortcuts in the
replacement list.
.*tz.* => '\1ţ\2'
.*a>.* => '\1ă\2'
and so on. (.* means any character) This would be equally effective to any
method based on keyboard shortcuts.

To further illustrate the usefulness of wildcards, I end with another example,
this time with a noun:
(English: diagnosis)
singular: diagnostic, diagnosticul
plural: diagnostice,  diagnosticele
replacement list: dx[elu]* => diagnostic\1
(the first form of the noun is as for 'the'+'noun', and the second form is a
special form in Romanian, something like when 'the' has been removed from the
beginning and appended to the noun itself)

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