Sourcetext ignore ( or create ) line breaks

[Adam Greenberg]

I want a sourcetext expression to ignore a line break if there is one, and/or also have the control to add it’s own.

I am creating a template that will have multiple composition size exports. Here are just 2 of them. example ( 1920 by 1080 ) and ( 1080 by 1920 )

But I’d like one place to edit the text. So let’s say this is the text;

‘’ Shark Week The killers in Hawaiii ‘’

If I expression source text this to both comps, This would fit easily as 1 line in the 1920 width composition.

but the 1080 width comp, it would need to appear as 2 lines as follows

‘’ Shark Week

The killers in Hawaiii ‘’

But if I make a paragraph box it will appear like this ( which is not good ) ;

‘’ Shark Week The

killers in Hawaiii ‘’

The user would need to decide the appropriate place for the line break even though there won’t be a line break in the 1920 by 1080 composition most of the time

Is there any possible work around ?

Thanks

[Andrei Popa]

Maybe use the 1080 comp text in the 1920 but replace newlines with spaces. Something like:
text.sourceText.replace(/\r/g,” “)

[Adam Greenberg]

That’s fantastic Andrei. Thanks so much.

To get the opposite result, I wonder if it’s not possible.

The best I can think of is a similar but opposite expression linked to a slider somehow. Like the slider would represent which space turns into a line break.

Just a thought.

[Chris Voelz]

You could use a slider that controls the character placement of \r code. Set a text animator to words and use the slider to position the carriage return.

Or hard code the two variants into the text layer and use an if statement based on comp width to control which variation to display.

[Adam Greenberg]

yes, thanks, I think it’s a good option. But I’m not fully sure how to write that out

[Chris Voelz]

This would be an easier solution if you don’t need much variability.

w1920 = "Shark Week The killers in Hawaii";
w1080 = "Shark Week \rThe killers in Hawaii";
if (thisComp.width == 1920){
	w1920;
}else{
	w1080;
}

[Adam Greenberg]

well i never know what the text will be so the slider ( for the 1080 comps only ) could represent the spaces, and as i slide the slider up, it will change the line break, for example;

title is – ONCE UPON A TIME IN AFTER EFFECTS

SLIDER AT 0 WOULD BE –

ONCE UPON A TIME IN AFTER EFFECTS

SLIDER AT 1

ONCE

UPON A TIME IN AFTER EFFECTS

SLIDER 6-

ONCE UPON A TIME IN AFTER

EFFECTS

[Andrei Popa]

If you want to put the line break via slider, you could use this:

var s = text.sourceText;
var f = " ";
var r = "\r";
var n = effect("Slider Control")("Slider").value;
const replace_nth = function (s, f, r, n) {
    // From the given string s, replace f with r of nth occurrence
    return s.replace(RegExp("^(?:.*?" + f + "){" + n + "}"), x => x.replace(RegExp(f + "$"), r));
};
replace_nth(s,f,r,n);

[Adam Greenberg]

yes exactly this.

Thanks so much Andrei.

I am sure this will prove useful for many people when they want to avoid retyping the same text which is be used across different composition width formats yet need that extra control.

That’s just fantastic