Hello.
If you have an outline looking like this:
[code]# A no frills outlining script for TextEdit
Hard facts
Level numbering
Indentation between Levels
If you want Left margin or not.
How many levels you want with linefeeds separating the headings.
Rationale
Primary
Secondary
Groff
AWK
Sed
Apple Script
Using the script
Syntax
The levels have to be defined continously deeper.
Atx style headings - same as in Markdown.
Laziness
Ignoring empty lines.
How it works
Combining the tools we got.
The TextEdit script.
The Awk script
Installation
Prerequsites
TextEdit
Creating the script bundle
Saving the Awk script inside it
Make it all work
Choose Save As.
Open the package the script bundle consists of in Finder.
Navigate to the resources folder
Drag the proxy icon over to the Save As dialog in your editor
Save the Awk script with the name preProcess.awk
Open a terminal window and change the directory to the Resources folder of your script bundle.
Perform chmod u+x preProcess.awk in the Terminal Window.
Try it on some document with something that can be interpreted as an outline
Configuration
Numbering scheme – lvlNumberScheme
Left Margin – removeLeftMargin
Linefeeds between list items – lvlWithNewlineSep
Indentation between levels – lvlSpacesForIndentation[/code]
It will produce an outline like this:
[code] I. A no frills outlining script for TextEdit
1. Hard facts
A. Level numbering
B. Indentation between Levels
C. If you want Left margin or not.
D. How many levels you want with linefeeds separating the headings.
2. Rationale
A. Primary
B. Secondary
i. Groff
ii. AWK
iii. Sed
iv. Apple Script
II. Using the script
1. Syntax
A. The levels have to be defined continously deeper.
2. Atx style headings same as in Markdown.
3. Laziness
4. Ignoring empty lines.
III. How it works
1. Combining the tools we got.
2. The TextEdit script.
3. The Awk script
IV. Installation
1. Prerequsites
A. TextEdit
B. Creating the script bundle
C. Saving the Awk script inside it
D. Make it all work
i. Choose Save As.
ii. Open the package the script bundle consists of in Finder.
iii. Navigate to the resources folder
iv. Drag the proxy icon over to the Save As dialog in your editor
v. Save the Awk script with the name preProcess.awk
vi. Open a terminal window and change the directory to the Resources folder of your script bundle.
vii. Perform chmod u+x preProcess.awk in the Terminal Window.
viii. Try it on some document with something that can be interpreted as an outline
V. Configuration
1. Numbering scheme lvlNumberScheme
2. Left Margin removeLeftMargin
3. Linefeeds between list items lvlWithNewlineSep
4. Indentation between levels lvlSpacesForIndentation[/code]
I. A no frills outlining script for TextEdit
- Hard facts
This script produces a pretty outline in a new TextEdit document, based on a TextEdit document with atx type
headers in the front document.
The outline may contain a maximum of 6 levels, which should be enough for most cases.
It uses groff (the document processing system every Mac comes with, AWK, and sed to do so.
The script is configurable with regards to:
A. Level numbering
You can control what kind of numbering scheme you want for each level.
B. Indentation between levels
C. If you want Left margin or not.
All this is done by editing properties in the Apple Script, inline instructions.
D. How many levels you want with linefeeds separating the headings.
You can adjust this according to your taste, I like it "airy", but if you don't want linefeeds separating your headings
from a certain level downwards, then there is a property you can set for this. See instructions in the script.
The outlines that is produced should work well with utf-8 enconded text, that is, if you use special characters, you
should get correct outpout.
-
Rationale
A. Primary
I have missed a quick and dirty way to produce an outline. The process of creating the outline may be as important
as the end result, so the foundation for the outline may be the goal. Structure.This script provides a very easy way to generate good looking outlines, by just editing lines of text and re running the
script.It is should be fun to play with, as you can’t really ruin something, and it is also difficult to mess things up, like you may
be able to do with more complex tools. That removes some barriers for exprimenting with stuff, and freedom is always good.B. Secondary
To show off some tools that comes with every version of Mac Os X, and put their versatility to display.i. Groff
groff is the gnu version of troff/nroff, and comes with an abundance of macro packages, for generating manpages, letters,
articles, books. Think of it as a parallel/ancestor to TeX.groff comes with many predefined macro packages. See man groff.
ii. AWK
Awk is an old tool, a descendant of sed, and it uses the same pattern for its work, that is, pattern action. When no more rules,
generates a hit for the line, the next line is read and processed.It is ideal for report generation of various kinds, and perfect for small personal databases. I think I have have proved here,
that it is also pretty good for making small parsers.iii. Sed
Sed is an incredible tool for processing text of all kinds, and gives us Apple Scripters the means for handling most textual
transformation at the regular expression level.iv. AppleScript
AppleScript sees to that we get stuff in and out of the gui represented by TextEdit in this case.
II. Using the script
-
Syntax
A. The levels have to be defined continously deeper.
You can’t specify level 4 as the next level after level 2.You can specify level 2 after level 4. The awk script then finalizes the level 4 and level 3 sublists, and continues on level 2.
-
Atx style headings same as in Markdown.
This is a good thing, when you are finished with your outline, you can reuse its foundation in a markdown document for
producing html, or whatever.
The Atx-style syntax is also rather elegant, it is a very fast way to specify a level; by just entering a number #´s in front of
the line that is to be a heading! -
Laziness
If you don’t want to, then you don’t have to enter more atx headers than necessary. It is really only necessary to change
the amount of atx headers every time you change the outline level. -
Ignoring empty lines.
The script is totally agnostic to empty lines in your foundation for the outline, as it produces its own empty lines,
it will just ignore yours.
III. How it works
AppleScript gets text in and out of TextEdit. The atx style outline is then sent throuhg an awk script that inserts
mm macros for producing an outline with groff.
The result is then cleaned up for uneccesary linefeeds with sed.
-
The TextEdit Apple script
Contains various properties that can be altered to change the look of the resulting outline. It also runs the whole commandline,
that calls awk, groff and sed, before making TextEdit create a new document containing the result. -
The Awk script
Is a rather lengthy affaire at 100 lines, I guess I could make it considerably shorter by obfuscating it. By the way, with
the debugging skeleton in place, it was almost twice as long! It checks the foundation for syntax, and deduces
what outline level the current header is at.
IV. Installation
-
Prerequsites
A. TextEdit
In order for this to work encoding wise, TextEdit must be configured to read and write utf8. This will also make text
show up with correct encoding in quicklook.B. Creating the script bundle
Compile the AppleScript and save it as a bundle, under your script menu’s TextEdit folder with a name like
TextEditOutline.C. Saving the Awk script inside it
Copy the Awk script into an editor of your choice capable of saving things as utf-8 No Bom.D. Make it all work
i. Choose Save As.
ii. Open the package the script bundle consists of
in Finder.iii. Navigate to the resources folder
iv. Drag the proxy icon over to the Save As dialog
in your editorv. Save the Awk script with the name preProcess.awk
vi. Open a terminal window and change the directory
to the Resources folder of your script bundle.vii. Perform chmod u+x preProcess.awk in the
Terminal Window.viii. Try it on some document with something that
can be interpreted as an outline
If it works then you are all done.
V. Configuration
There are several properties in the AppleScript that can be used to configure the result of the outlining. The default
values are stated here, and in the script should you ever need to revert something.
-
Numbering scheme – lvlNumberScheme
The number schem for the outline: You’ll need exactly 6 specifiers.
Below are the valid specifiers.
I : uppercase Roman Numerals i.e I…IX and so on.
i : lowercase Roman Numerals i.e i…ix and so on.
1 : arabic numerals i.e 1…9 and so on
A : uppercase letters.
a : lowercase letters.
Edit to suit your taste! : Original value: “I1Ai1a” -
Left Margin – removeLeftMargin
Boolean set this to true or false for whether you want the left margin consisting of 7 spaces removed or not.
Edit to suit your taste! Original value : true. -
Linefeeds between list items – lvlWithNewlineSep
This property has to be text, and it has to be from 1 to 6 in value.
The number of levels ,specify the levels that will embellish lower
levels with linefeeds. Make it lesser than 6 to compact your outline.
Edit to suit your taste! Original value : “6” -
Indentation between levels – lvlSpacesForIndentation
This property has to be text, and it has to be a number denoting the number
of spaces for indentation.
Edit to your taste! Original value : “3”
The AppleScript that should be saved as a bundle with the name TextEditOutline in your TextEdit Scripts folder.
# TextEditOutline
# © McUsr 2012 And put into public domain under the license GPL 1.0
# I interpret GPL 1.0 as that you may not post it, have it in a script collection for public consumption, or a repository for a
# closed circle, or charge something by using this, or a development of this work into something of your own.
# Nor charge for a compilation of scripts or tips where this script is included. Sharing between friends are fine!
# Please refer to this link otherwise: http://macscripter.net/viewtopic.php?pid=159019#p159019
# Release 1.0.2
# There are no guarantees about anything what_so_ever.
script TextEditOutline
property parent : AppleScript
property lvlNumberScheme : "I1Ai1a"
# The number schem for the outline: You'll need exactly 6 specifiers.
# These are the valid specifiers. : original string: "I1Ai1a"
# I : uppercase Roman Numerals i.e I..IX and so on.
# i : lowercase Roman Numerals i.e i..ix and so on.
# 1 : arabic numerals i.e 1..9 and so on
# A : uppercase letters.
# a : lowercase letters.
# Edit to suit your taste!
property lvlWithNewlineSep : "6"
# this property has to be text, and it has to be from 1 to 6 in value
# the number of levels here will specify the levels, that will embellish lower
# levels with new line. Make it lesser to compact your outline.
# Edit to your taste!
property lvlSpacesForIndentation : "3"
# this property has to be text, and it has to be a number denoting the number of spaces for indentation.
# Edit to your taste!
property removeLeftMargin : true
# boolean set this to true or false for whether you want the left margin consisting of 7 spaces removed or not
on run
global theText
# We get the text out of the text edit document.
local rpath, failed
set rpath to POSIX path of (path to resource "preProcess.awk")
# The path to the awkscript in our bundler.
set failed to false
tell application "TextEdit"
try
set theText to text of its document 1
on error
set failed to true
end try
end tell
if not failed then
local tids, theItems
set {tids, AppleScript's text item delimiters} to {AppleScript's text item delimiters, return}
set theItems to every text item of theText
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to linefeed
set theText to theItems as text
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to tids
tell application "TextEdit"
tell its document 1
local a, b
set text of it to theText
try
# we only save if the document has a path
set a to path of it
set b to a
save
end try
end tell
end tell
# We update the document with the returns sifted out.
# This is for when we update the outline, by a document.
# we'll then remove any returns obtained through the clipboard.
if removeLeftMargin = true then
set imRes to (do shell script rpath & " -v outlineNumbering=\"" & lvlNumberScheme & "\" -v linefeedsForLevels=\"" & lvlWithNewlineSep & "\" -v indentSpaces=\"" & lvlSpacesForIndentation & "\" <<<" & quoted form of theText & " |preconv -e utf8 |groff -dpaper=a1 -s -mm -Tutf8 |sed -e 1d -e :a -e '/^\\n*$/N;/\\n$/ba' |sed -e 's/^[ ]\\{7\\}//g' " without altering line endings)
else
set imRes to (do shell script rpath & " -v outlineNumbering=\"" & lvlNumberScheme & "\" -v linefeedsForLevels=\"" & lvlWithNewlineSep & "\" -v indentSpaces=\"" & lvlSpacesForIndentation & "\" <<<" & quoted form of theText & " |preconv -e utf8 |groff -dpaper=a1 -s -mm -Tutf8 |sed -e 1d -e :a -e '/^\\n*$/N;/\\n$/ba' " without altering line endings)
end if
tell application "TextEdit"
make new document at front
tell its document 1
set text of it to imRes
end tell
activate
end tell
end if
end run
end script
tell TextEditOutline to run
This is the awk script that must be put into the Resources folder of the script
bundle. You also have to make it executable with chmod u+x from a Terminal window.
[code]#!/usr/bin/awk -f
© McUsr 2012 And put into public domain under the license GPL 1.0
I interpret GPL 1.0 as that you may not post it, have it in a script collection for public consumption, or a repository for a
closed circle, or charge something by using this, or a development of this work into something of your own.
Nor charge for a compilation of scripts or tips where this script is included. Sharing between friends are fine!
Please refer to this link otherwise: http://macscripter.net/viewtopic.php?pid=159019#p159019
Release 1.0.0
BEGIN { curLevel=0 ; haderror = 0 ; initialized=0; }
function perror() {
# will work in filename.
printf(“preProcess.awk: Missing levels …\nBailing out!\n”)
haderror=1
exit 1
}
function initSeq() {
# the linelength, set large, to avoid indenting.
print “.ll 30i” ;
# organizing of “Paper size and such”
print “.PGNH”
# no headers
print “.nr Ls " linefeedsForLevels
# embed newlines around list-elms all 6 levels.
# change this to contract newlines between blocks with a level.
print “.nr Li " indentSpaces
# indent a deeper level with 3 spaces.
print “.nr PO 0i”
}
function startList( listLevel ) {
printf(”.AL %s\n”, substr(outlineNumbering,listLevel,1))
}
$0 ~ /^#\ / {
if (curLevel == 0) {
if ( initialized == 0 ) {
initSeq() ; initialized=1 ;
}
curLevel=1 ; startList(curLevel) ;
} else if ( curLevel > 1 ) {
while ( --curLevel > 1)
print ".LE" ;
print ".LE" ;
}
}
$0 ~ /^##\ / {
if (curLevel == 1) {
curLevel=2 ; startList(curLevel) ;
} else if ( curLevel > 2 ) {
while ( --curLevel > 2 )
print “.LE” ;
print “.LE” ;
} else if ( curLevel < 1 )
perror() ;
}
$0 ~ /^###\ / {
if (curLevel == 2 ) {
curLevel=3 ; startList(curLevel) ;
} else if ( curLevel > 3 ) {
while ( --curLevel > 3 )
print ".LE" ;
print ".LE" ;
} else if ( curLevel < 2 )
perror() ;
}
$0 ~ /^####\ / {
if (curLevel == 3) {
curLevel=4 ; startList(curLevel) ;
} else if ( curLevel > 4 ) {
while ( --curLevel > 4 )
print “.LE” ;
print “.LE” ;
} else if ( curLevel < 3 )
perror() ;
}
$0 ~ /^#####\ / {
if (curLevel == 4) {
curLevel=5 ; startList(curLevel) ;
} else if ( curLevel > 5 ) {
print “.LE” ; curLevel=5 ;
} else if ( curLevel < 4 )
perror() ;
}
$0 ~ /^######\ / {
if (curLevel == 5) {
curLevel=6 ; startList(curLevel) ;
} else if ( curLevel != 6 )
perror() ;
}
$0 !~ /^##/ {
if ( $0 !~ /^[ \t]$/ ) {
if ( level == 0 && initialized == 0 ) {
initSeq() ; initialized=1 ; curLevel=1 ; startList(curLevel)
}
}
}
{
if ( $0 !~ /^[ \t]$/ ) { print “.LI” ; sub("^##\ “,”“) ; sub(”^[ \t][ \t]*“,”") ; print $0 ; next }
}
END {
if ( haderror == 0 ) {
if ( curLevel > 0 ) {
while ( --curLevel > 0 )
print ".LE" ;
} else { print "Nothing to do." }
}
}[/code]
Enjoy 