Hacking Paratext Interlinearizer (Part 1)

Hacking Paratext Interlinearizer (Part 1)

Foolhardy hackers (such as yours truly) can customise the UBS Paratext 7.x interlinearizer by adjusting some files found in the program folder Paratext 7\Interlinear. Here’s a brief hacker’s guide:

Warning: Making a mistake here may stop the interlinearizer working and require Paratext to be reinstalled. Back up any files you change, but also keep copies of the changed files because any Paratext update may remove your custom changes. It seems very unlikely you could lose any work by any of this. The steps below are not difficult, but if you can’t understand them, you probably shouldn’t try this.

Disclaimer: this worked for me under Paratext 7.3.100.4. YMMV.

There are two things I like to change:

1. Make the interlinear view use space more efficiently.
2. Change the popup gloss list so the edit/delete buttons work better.

1. Better use of space: MainDisplay_david.css

• Install the MainDisplay_david.css file in place of MainDisplay.css as described below.
• You’ll see the braces take up less vertical space and other whitespace has been reduced a little.

2. Better popup gloss list: PopupMenu_david.css & PopupMenu_david.xslt

• Install the PopupMenu_david.css & PopupMenu_david.xslt files in place of PopupMenu.css & .xslt files as described below.
• You’ll see the edit/delete buttons get moved to the left of the glosses/guesses that you can choose from and they should be a little easier to use. Most importantly you can reduce the font size (zoom smaller) and the buttons don’t get jumbled up as they do before you apply this fix.

How to install:

• Download the InterlinearHacks zip file, then expand the files.
• Close Paratext.
• Take the file you want to install and move it into the C:\Program Files\Paratext 7\Interlinear\ folder (on 64 bit systems it’s at C:\Program Files (x86)\Paratext 7\Interlinear\).
• Rename the existing file (eg appending _original).
• Remove the _david part from the replacement file name.
• Start Paratext.

Uninstall simply by removing the files you brought in and removing _original from the original files’ filenames.