[rosmari]

when I copy text onto MS Word from e-mails or a web page, the text lines are short and often irregular.
Is there a way to highlight that section and click some instructions for the lines to convert and conform to the regular page and paragraph setup? (Rather than click "space" and "delete" at the end of each and every line...)

[Anne Troy]

You'll want to perfect the steps you take, and then record a macro sometime. Turn your show/hide button on to see what's happening.

Use the find/replace functions (ctrl-h). Hit the More-Special buttons to see the codes for other items to find/replace and to figure out what I'm finding and replacing here.

Here's a good example for cleaning up an email:

Find: ^p^p
Replace with: PARARETURN
Hit Replace all until zero replacements are made.

Find: ^p
Replace with: <hit spacebar once>

Find: <hit spacebar twice>
Replace with: <hit spacebar once>
Hit Replace all until zero replacements are made.

Find: PARARETURN
Replace with: ^p

Why am I using PARARETURN? So that when I really DO want a paragraph return (which is generally created by more than one paragraph return character). If I don't do that, I'll have to manually go back in and figure out where I want my paragraph returns.

I hope this makes sense and helps!

[rosmari]

thank you, I understand the concept, but I'm afraid I'm a bit dense as to the steps to get there.
I highlighted a section with uneven text.
I clicked ctrl.h
I typed ^p^p into the "find" area, and parareturn into the "replace" area.
I clicked "replace all".
The result was that I got the word 'parareturn' at the end of most lines, but it certainly did not straighten out my lines.

Then I did the same, with a different text, from a website; that text is in a narrow column, starting about an inch from the left margin. Clicking ^p^p and parareturn did not affect it at all.
However, if I click ^p in 'find', and nothing in 'replace', the lines will join up to form one long line, but it does not get rid of the left margin or indent in the original text - i.e. before each bit of text that has joined the previous one, there is an empty space equivalent to the original indent.
In your next step, you leave both 'find' and 'replace' blank. If 'find' is empty, 'replace all' is greyed out and I can't click it.
And your last step, 'parareturn' in 'find' and ^p in replace with', produces nothing. Evidently, I'm not doing it right.

How do I get rid of the spaces within the new lines, which are caused by the general indent of the text?

Thanks

[rosmari]

Eureka, I found a way:
1) highlight section
2) ctrl-h
3) 'find' ^p, 'replace' (leave blank)
4) 'find ^w, 'replace' hit space bar once

Et voila....

[Anne Troy]