Re: [SHOEBOX] importing a text

On Fri, 28 Jul 2000, The Gray Wizard wrote:

> > From: dirk elzinga
> >
> > Hey.
> >
> > I should have been specific about the kinds of trouble I'm having.
> > When I follow the steps outlined in the documentation, I get a message
> > that several fields have been discarded because the marker wasn't
> > found. Which is odd, since TEXTPREP.CCT is supposed to insert the
> > correct markers as part of the conversion. Also, when I do get the
> > text, the sentences are arranged in alphabetical order rather than
> > sequentially. Weird.
>
> Well, I am glad that so many of us are trying Shoebox after my initial post
> even if some of us are struggling to make it work.  I haven't tried
> importing a file (been typing the text directly into an interlinear file in
> Shoebox) so I can't help you there.  I'll give it a try later today to see
> if I experience the same difficulties.
I was hoping to avoid typing in the text by hand, since part of what
I'd like to be able to do with Shoebox is actually work-related; I
would like to try to create some projects which would contain Gosiute
dictionaries and texts as well as grammatical information for
eventual publication in a comprehensive Gosiute reference grammar. I
already have some texts on my hard drive, and I want to be able to
import them to Shoebox to work with them there.

> If all else fails, you might try
> setting up an interlinear database type and opening a new file of that type.
> You could then cut and past from your original text into the interlinear
> file adding the \t tag where appropriate.
I'll try that. I'm playing with some Shemspreg stuff right now to get
the feel for the program; after I figure things out (what works, what
doesn't; what's useful, what's not), I wanted to get started on the
Gosiute data.

I remember downloading Shoebox a couple of years ago and trying it out
then. I was daunted by the size and unintuitive nature of the program
then, but since the Shoebox thread came up on this list, I thought I'd
give it another go. Working through the Walkthrough was pretty easy,
and that encouraged me to actually use the program. But if I can't
import the text files I already have, there doesn't seem to be a whole
lot of point to it except for goofing around with my constructed
language projects; my time at work is too precious to retype pages and
pages of oral narratives again, and I can't afford an RA right now.

Dirk

--
Dirk Elzinga
dirk.elzinga@m.cc.utah.edu