Hello,
In the online editor, is there a quick way to toggle between show/hide non-printable characters, without going through settings?
2 Likes
Hello Alla, do you mean tags? If yes, a wheel button in top right corner (settings) - then hide html tags, I always use this option.
In case I didnt get you right - there’s a keyboard button near the wheel - a list of shortcuts, all that is supported should be presented there.
1 Like
Thanks George. I meant what the list of shortcuts refers to as “non-printable characters” which is mainly whitespace (space, tabs, newline, etc.)
If the second part of your answer means that if it is not int the shortcuts list, then it doesn’t exist, then there is no quick way. So, each time I need to make whitespace visible, I should click settings (gear)> Appearance > Non-printable characters displaying > click show > click save. Then vice versa to make them hidden.
This is the type of thing that one would like to use toggle for. For example, in Trados you type Alt+P to toggle between show and hide non-printables; in MS Word, your type Ctrl+Shift+*, and so on.
1 Like
Yes, a wheel button to procced with it (to show non printable characters).
Well, I can’t say it is used often, at least by my team for example. Crowdin has extremely big list of QA checks supported, if you missing a space system would show a pop up on the matter.
Regarding newlines, tabs, you don’t need them. Don’t know about other system in details, but Crowdin uses sting-based approach, each sentence (or paragraph is defined in that way) is separated in Editor, no chance you messed them up. Probably you can only if you add a whole page into a single MS Excel cell and that import this file into Crowdin with default configuration or something like that.
Having one more shortcut, in my opinion, is not necessary as far as system is smart and you can work comfortable without this highlighting.
1 Like
Thanks for your answer. If by the wheel button you mean the gear button (Settings), then going through settings is not what I am looking for (that’s what I already use for lack of a quicker method). That is not a quick method when you want to check whether your whitespace is matching the source then switch back to normal viewing.
Whether a shortcut is needed or not, is up to each user’s requirements. When you translate in a large project already set up by the client, you normally need to match the source whitespace for each segment, which may include soft spaces, hard spaces, tabs and inline linefeeds. In fact, other systems also show other control characters like Unicode left-to-right and right-to-left marks which can cause problems in right-to-left languages if they are misplaced. This is something that needs to be added in Crowdin too.
In summary, the fact that applications like MS Word, Trados, WordFast and Memsource have a toggle to show hidden characters is not without reason.
1 Like
@Alaa.Zeineldine I’d like to +1 here, a nice to have feature. Have you added the idea already?
1 Like
Hello Petros, This was my first post on the forum. Thanks for letting me know about this. I will submit the idea shortly.
1 Like
Hi, @Alaa.Zeineldine I’ve decided to jump here and join the conversation 
As @TiroliTemar said, there are plenty of features to make translators’ user experience as friendly as possible, so in most cases, there is no need to display non-printables.
Still, we’re always open to new features and ideas, and I can assure you that in case the idea will gather a lot of votes from other users it would be definitely realized 
1 Like
Hello @Dima Thanks for your note. I have submitted the idea and the rest is up to the ballot box then
3 Likes