How to convert c, d, dz, s, z into č, ć, đ, dž, š, ž?

I’ve got this massive block of text where someone clearly skipped using the proper accents, so everything is just typed with standard 'c' characters instead of the accented versions. Is there any specific software out there—maybe something along the lines of ABBYY for OCR conversion—that could automate fixing these characters and cleaning up the formatting?

If you're working with a document like the one you mentioned, you can just handle it in Microsoft.

Go to Edit> Replace> In the "Find what" box, type "c", then in "Replace with," type "ć". Hit "Replace All," and that should do it. You can basically repeat that process for any other characters giving you trouble, then just save the file once the replacements are done.🙂

Joshua Garcia3 said:If you're just dealing with plain text like you mentioned, you can actually handle this right in Microsoft.

Just go to Edit > Replace. For "Find what," type "c," and for "Replace with," type "ć." Hit "Replace All" and you're done—it’ll fix all those troublesome letters for you. Just make sure to save the file once the replacements are finished.🙂

I appreciate the tip, really, but that would end up butchering words I don't want touched. Sure, if I wanted to turn a specific name into something else, it might work, but it would turn a word like "picture" into something nonsensical by replacing letters indiscriminately. So, in my estimation, I highly doubt a program exists that targets only specific instances without being a total mess. Still, who knows? Maybe some developer out there actually thought through this exact headache and whipped up a little utility to solve it.🙂

I find it highly unlikely that anyone from our neck of the woods would have even thought to develop software of this caliber. Honestly, unless some Russ was behind it...

Justin Martin39 said:Perhaps—just perhaps—someone finally decided to address this ongoing headache and actually developed some sort of software to fix it. I mean, it’s about time, isn't it? 🙂

If you truly believe that this is just some trivial little "piece of software"—if you honestly think it’s just a minor bit of code that anyone could whip up—then maybe you should just take five minutes out of your day and build it yourself. Go ahead. I guess it shouldn't be that hard for someone with such high standards, right?

Do you really think a little bit of "software" is going to be enough to make people realize they need to stick to being "muscle"—not some butchered version like "muscl" or "mussle"? I mean, honestly—it’s almost laughable. Maybe there's a chance, but I highly doubt it. It feels like we're constantly fighting an uphill battle against basic competence, and even with all this digital hand-holding, people still seem to trip over the simplest things. I guess we can hope, but I'm not holding my breath.

I suspect—though I can't say for certain—that utilizing a decent spell-checker might actually help you manually overhaul a significant portion of that mess relatively quickly, even if it isn't some sort of automatic fix.

Joshua Garcia3 said:If you're just dealing with plain text like you said, you can just use Microsoft.

Go to Edit > Replace. Search for "c" and replace it with "ć"—or whatever specific character is giving you grief—then just hit "Replace All." Boom. Done. Once you've swapped all those annoying letters out, just save the file.🙂

Honestly, I’d do the exact same thing, except I’d tell the find-and-replace tool to bump the font size of the replaced letter up to like 20 pt. That way, you can actually spot the mistakes where the replacement went overboard.

Besides, if the document isn't massive—like under 200 pages—the standard spell check works just fine anyway.

Justin Martin39 said:like, if Joshua Garcia3 typed "carpet" it would go into the carpet however he wants, but maybe it'd swap out a word like "picture" for "pixie" instead

Check this link. It's got examples of how to use Find/Replace with special characters