Can you auto-delete the space before an auto-corrected word?

[maczopikczo]

Hello, my question is whether you can (in Writer) automatically delete the space before an autocorrected word to join that autocorrected word with the word preceding it.

For example (in Polish):
I want to auto-correct while typing: “dal” “bys” to “dałbyś”.

So, I know how to define auto-correct “dal” to “dał”, and “bys” to “byś”. But what I need is also to join these two - in other words remove the space between them while also auto-correcting the latter of the two (as if hitting backspace and then auto-correct the second word).

[keme1]

• Menu item Tools - Autocorrect - Options …
  • Select the Replace tab
  • In the Replace field, enter dal bys
  • In the With field, enter dałbyś
  • Click the New button, then OK
• Verify that menu item Tools - Autocorrect - When typing is ticked
  You select the entry to toggle tick/untick

If you also need autocorrection if the words/fragments occur by themselves (not as a pair), you may need to add several entries to the corrections list. I don’t know much Polish, so cannot imagine possible constellations. You can probably find out for yourself. If not, ask again

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A little aside: The thought that strikes me whenever I read about requirement for “advanced autocorrection”:

There is a tiny step from autocorrect to autocorrupt.

[ajlittoz]

@keme1

There is a tiny step from autocorrect to autocorrupt.

+++ (should be pondered upon seventy-seven times !)
This is why I prefer to work without AutoCorrect, even if it looks more painful.

[maczopikczo]

Thanks, keme1. However, what you propose applies to only this single combination of words. As “byś” is a rather common suffix in Polish, I’m looking for a more universal way of affixing it to the preceding word - in such a way that after typing “bys” it’s corrected to “byś”, and affixed to the word immediately before it.

[keme1]

@maczopikczo

I’m looking for a more universal way of affixing it to the preceding word - in such a way that after typing “bys” it’s corrected to “byś”, and affixed to the word immediately before it.

Tried inserting as regular expression in a couple of ways, but it looks like the autocorrection does not support the use of regex. I suspect that this requires a rewrite of the autocorrection module, which is out of my league, and also outside the scope of this site.
You can request an enhancement.

[maczopikczo]

Thanks again. I’ll try to request this enhancement, because it would greatly speed up my work - and hopefully also other users’.

[shantanuo]

Is “byś” always used as a suffix? Or it can be used as a regular word also?

[maczopikczo]

Hi, shantanuo,
yep, it can be used both ways - as a regular word, too.

But actually the list of such 2-tuples in Polish would be massive. Such suffixes as -byś, -bym, -by, -byście, -byśmy are super common — you add them to verbs in the past tense to create conditional verbs.

Then there are suffixes that result in participles: verb + -jąc/-jący/-jącym/-jącego/-jącemu/-jąca/-jącą/-jącej/-jące/-jącym/-jących/-jącymi (all of which are sort of equivalent of -ing)

The list is much, much longer. Then there are prefixes, too.

At the moment I’ve just found a cheap and dirty way around it - I type the verbs and their suffixes separately, and then, after a day’s work I Ctrl+H them:
find: [space]-byś (etc.) / replace: [w/o space]byś

That kind of does the job, but severely obstructs the flow. Also, it takes a lot of time to find/replace all possible suffixes and affixes time and again. As a writer I really need to find a way to define autocorrection for as many verbs as possible, and have a finite list of such suffixes that I could attach as I type.

[hasklo1]

@maczopikczo @shantanuo posted the question for you on StackExchange, and I had posted an answer there. The solution I posted only works for suffixes. To work for prefixes, I would suggest creating another sub with different SearchString, maybe like this:
args1(11).Value = sinFind & "[ ]+"
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/77965805/a-macro-to-remove-the-first-space

[shantanuo]

Another macro is available here… 159652 – Finding a way to join a suffix to the word immediately before it, using autocorrect function