[Saxon]

Do you ever receive Word files with annoyingly long gaps between paragraphs and words. This Macro will strip them away leaving one blank line between each paragraph and one space between each word. Neat!!

Just one thing. The line below which reads
For x = 1 to To 30
will only deal with 30 lines. I recommend you change the 30 to 300 or whatever you think is appropriate for you. The Macro will still run effectively no matter how many lines you enter, it will just take longer to complete that's all.

Copy the Macro below the dotted line.

Update: - I've been informed that spaces of more than one between words are not shown on this forum, so when you copy/paste this Macro please insert one more space in the first .Text=" "entry below
-----------------------------------------------

Sub StripSpacePara()
For x = 1 To 30
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = "^p^p^p"
.Replacement.Text = "^p^p"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
With Selection.Find
.Text = " "
.Replacement.Text = " "
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
Next x
End Sub

[ChuckE]

You second portion, the part that searches for two spaces and replaces with one space, does not get presented well in this forum. The two spaces are shown here as just one space, so you might want to tell people to edit the copy from the posting.

By the way, you wanted a macro for this?
Is it that hard to do a manual S&R (Search & Replace)?

[Saxon]

Thanks for the info on the Text space bit, will have to to a REM next time if spaces are not shown properly in the forum. I think your missing the point with the find/replace option, once made this is available always and can be assigned to a Toolbar button which will do the job instantly with one mouse click.

[ChuckE]

Oh I understand that having a Toolbar button is very convenient, I just thought it was a bit of overkill for something that seems so easy (maybe it is just me).

What I think is very valuable is that you brought up the idea that some people have just not even thought of, yet. That is, to search for two "c/r's" and replacing with one (to remove extra c/r's), and to search for two spaces and replace with one.

It is surprising how many people just don't have a clue. But your post maybe gets some people some insight. Thanks.

[Saxon]

Thanks for all that ChuckE, and I hope people will try both methods, but here as in the real world it's a case of 'Horses for Courses' and whether the horse is called Overkill will not matter. I have a sneaking feeling that people are going to bet on it if it always gets to the winning post first.