Non-breaking space before ; : ! ?

Question

Is there a way to automatically insert a non-breaking space before the characters which require one in French, that is : ; ! ? 
 It is really time-consuming to insert the non-breaking spaces manually through Ctrl+shift+space or ALT+0160, and I imagine that all French translators encounter the same problem. 
 With the automatic replacement function, it only works when the character (: ; ! ?) is preceded by a space and not when it directly follows a word. 
 Thank you for your help!

Nora Díaz · Accepted Answer

Hi Christel, 
 
 Try this: 
 1. Download AutoHotkey ( www.autohotkey.com ) and install it. Once installed, you won't see anything open, that's normal. AutoHotkey runs in the background and allows you to run your own scripts (macros).

2. Go to a folder in Windows Explorer where you would like to save your script (I have a folder called AutoHotkey Scripts just to keep them all in one place). Right-click on an empty space in the folder and select New-AutoHotkey Script. Give a name to your script and save it. 
 
 So far, you have the empty "skeleton" of a script. Now you need to enter the actions you want it to execute.

3. Right-click on the script and select Open, then open it with a text editor, such as Notepad (I prefer Notepad++, available for free).

4. Once the file is open, enter the following: 
 
 :*?:!::^+{Space}{!} :*?:?::^+{Space}? :*?:;::^+{Space}; : up::Send ^+{Space}:

5. Save the file. Now double-click the file, and this will load the script. Look for a green square with a white H in it in your system tray, which indicates that the script is active. Now, whenever you type one of the characters, it will be replaced by a non-breaking space + the character.

PS: It seems that with the new forum format there is no way to mark text as code any longer.

Trados Studio > 6. AutoHotKey

Non-breaking space before ; : ! ?

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