 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
| HomeDiscussionsAccessExcelInfoPathOutlookPowerPointPublisherWordDirectoryUser Groups Related Topics Outlook ExpressInternet ExplorerWindowsMS Server ProductsMore Topics ... |
MS Office Forum / Word / Page Layout / June 2006Untidy Text
Dear all, I have MS Word 2002. Tidy text means one space between each word like this across the length of a iine. However when I copy text from a web page it sometimes comes out like this ie with multiple spaces between words and short lines . Or this might happen when the text I am copying for example here http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-PHIL/inada4.htm has short lines or blank space at the start of a line (indentation). Is there some way to correct this? What I want the text to do is to run together ie to have one space between each line / cut out empty space and to fill the length of the line. Is there some way to define these conditions for a block of text? I have a tried a few things but no success, so I am having to do corrections manually, which in a long document takes forever. Any suggestions? Thank you Dear all, X = space between word When IXXXXXX posted XXthe XXaboveXX I XXXXadded XXXXXXextra XXXspaces XXbetweenXXXX words to illustrate my problem. Ironically, the forum soffware detected these unnatural spaces and automactically deleted them ie tidied up my text. This is just what I am trying to acheive in MS Word. I'm seeing multiple spaces in your original post. I assume the problem is not just that the lines are justified. You can remove excess spaces by searching for " {2,}" (without the quotation marks; note the space before the opening brace) and replacing with a single space.  SignatureSuzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all may benefit. > Dear all, > [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > > Thank you > You can remove excess spaces by > searching for " {2,}" (without the quotation marks; note the space before > the opening brace) and replacing with a single space. Dear Suzanne, Thanks for your reply. > I assume the problem is not just that the lines are justified Well it is sometimes something to do with justifying in the sense that I am trying to undo the justifying embedded in the original text. For example take the first paragraph of the link that I mentioned before - http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-PHIL/inada4.htm This is written in short lines and the multiple spaces are there in the process of justifying it, but the problem is that this formatting (short lines and multiple spaces) which I don't want is carried into Word. I can manage to lose the indentation by pushing the whole block of text to the left but I am still stuck with the horrible short lines and multiple spaces. Anyway I tried your {2,} space, curly bracket, 2, comma, curly bracket but it doesn't seem to work - I get '0 replacements were made' :( >> You can remove excess spaces by >> searching for " {2,}" (without the quotation marks; note the space before [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] > space, curly bracket, 2, comma, curly bracket > but it doesn't seem to work - I get '0 replacements were made' :( You ARE going to get large gaps between words if you use full justification on relatively narrow columns. That's the way it makes the last word even with the right margin. The effect is particularly noticeable if there is a long first word on the next line. If you don't like the gaps you have to switch to Left Justify and put up with the jagged right edge. > You ARE going to get large gaps between words if you use full > justification on relatively narrow columns. That's the way it makes the > last word even with the right margin. The effect is particularly > noticeable if there is a long first word on the next line. If you don't > like the gaps you have to switch to Left Justify and put up with the > jagged right edge. Dear Robert, Yes I understand why the multiple spaces are there in the original text (written by someone else) but the question is how to get rid of them - the align left button will get rid of the muiltiple spaces when the text is originated by me but doesn't seem to work with text pasted from a web page. Anyway there is still the problem of short lines. When I write a Word doc, the right indent marker is at say 15 but some text pasted from the web ignores my marker at 15 and stops short at say 11. >> You ARE going to get large gaps between words if you use full >> justification on relatively narrow columns. That's the way it makes the [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > the right indent marker is at say 15 but some text pasted from the web > ignores my marker at 15 and stops short at say 11. "...my marker at 15..." You are either using a VERY wide page or metric measurements in your ruler. Unless the text contains some long words justification typically works pretty well as long as the column is over about 3 inches or 75 mm. Unless you use a really small font you will get some obvious gaps with narrower columns. The text won't usually extend to the right column where there's a typed return. You can see spaces and typed returns by clicking the Paragraph symbol on the tool bar (looks like a backwards "P" with two vertical lines). With that function on spaces will look like periods. There are multiple ways of adding spaces in web pages, and the results you get from a cut and paste may vary with how the page author achieved the spaces. If the page source contains multiple space between words or even returns your browser will normally compress the spaces to a single space. The page author could potentially override this behavior in a couple of ways, but I'm not sure you want an HTML lesson. Some people I'm acquainted with clear the formatting from text by pasting it to a notepad document, copying the text to the clipboard again from the notepad document and THEN pasting the text in Word. This will eliminate things like justification, fonts and attributes like italics and boldface. It probably won't eliminate actual multiple consecutive spaces, tabs or typed returns. I don't have the latest version of Word (I have Word 97) BUT I have a "Paste Special..." option on my "Edit" menu. The pop-up that appears when I click that option offers an ability to "Paste as unformatted text". Again this should eliminate everything but multiple spaces, tabs and typed returns. Maybe later versions of Word have the same item on their "Edit" menu. In Word 97 I would eliminate multiple consecutive spaces by typing "^w" (without quotes - "w" stands for "White space") in the "Find What:" field of the "Replace" pop-up, and " " (a single space) in the "Replace with:" field. For tabs entering "^t" in the "Find what:" field should work (do this before "^w"). When there are typed returns within what I believe should be paragraphs I replace the returns I want with an unusual character like a tilde (~) or a pipe (|). I then use Word's "Replace" function to change typed returns to a space, replace white space with a single space and THEN replace my chosen unusual character with returns. Sorry, I forgot to mention that you have to check "Use wildcards" in the Replace dialog. Also, if your lines of text are shorter than the margin width (especially since this is text copied from the Web), see http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/CleanWebText.htm SignatureSuzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all may benefit. > > You can remove excess spaces by > > searching for " {2,}" (without the quotation marks; note the space before [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] > space, curly bracket, 2, comma, curly bracket > but it doesn't seem to work - I get '0 replacements were made' :( > Sorry, I forgot to mention that you have to check "Use wildcards" in the > Replace dialog. OK using the first pargraph of my link above I get 44 replacements - however all this achieves is to shift the spaces around, I still have numerous multiple spaces but in a different arrangement :( If you turn on the display of paragraph marks by clicking on the ¶ button, you will probably only see one dot between each word meaning that there is only one space between each word. What appears to be additional spaces, but is not multiple spaces, is caused by the text being justified as has been mentioned earlier in this thread. SignatureHope this helps. Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my services on a paid consulting basis. Doug Robbins - Word MVP >> Sorry, I forgot to mention that you have to check "Use wildcards" in the >> Replace dialog. [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > all this achieves is to shift the spaces around, I still have numerous > multiple spaces but in a different arrangement :( > If you turn on the display of paragraph marks by clicking on the ¶ button, > you will probably only see one dot between each word meaning that there is > only one space between each word. Dear Doug, No there are multiple dots between the words - if anyone wants to see what I mean please try the first paragraph of this link http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-PHIL/inada4.htm as a random example of web text. When you paste something you get the 'paste options' icon and I choose 'keep text only' but in fact I don't get the text only but also the original formatting which I don't want, namely short lines and the multiple spaces that go with the short lines in the original justifying. This is a separate issue. While paste unformatted text will give you no formatting from the original, it will retain spaces between words and line or paragraph breaks. Those spaces include spaces which were used in the original instead of tabs. See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/CleanWebText.htm. Did you look at the page Doug referred you to? The multiple dots are multiple spaces. They are what happens when one attempts to use a computer like a typewriter. http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/concepts/introduction/index.html SignatureCharles Kenyon Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide See also the MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/ which is awesome! My criminal defense site: http://addbalance.com --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn from my ignorance and your wisdom. >> If you turn on the display of paragraph marks by clicking on the ¶ >> button, [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > formatting which I don't want, namely short lines and the multiple spaces > that go with the short lines in the original justifying. > This is a separate issue. While paste unformatted text will give you no > formatting from the original, it will retain spaces between words and line [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > like a typewriter. > http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/concepts/introduction/index.html Dear Charles, I don't think Doug mentioned a page. Anyway the ¶ are turned on and the web text has multiple dots ie multiple spaces between words, so I guess I need some kind of command to say 'replace all multiple spaces with a single space'. I think this is what Suzanne's idea was trying to do except it doesn't seem to work. Re the short lines, I can use Replace ^p with nothing. This will stretch out the short lines to my right indent marker (say 15 instead of 11). However on the down side, this causes mumerous words to merge together without a space. Replace ^p with a space then replace two spaces with one space. This will take care of everything except a single space at the beginning of a paragraph. http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/NonPrintChars.htm SignatureCharles Kenyon Word New User FAQ & Web Directory: http://addbalance.com/word Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide See also the MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/ which is awesome! My criminal defense site: http://addbalance.com --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies and questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn from my ignorance and your wisdom. >> This is a separate issue. While paste unformatted text will give you no >> formatting from the original, it will retain spaces between words and [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] > the down side, this causes mumerous words to merge together without a > space. As I posted later, the search term I gave you *does* work provided you have "Use wildcards" checked. See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/CleanWebText.htm for more on taking care of short lines. SignatureSuzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all may benefit. > > This is a separate issue. While paste unformatted text will give you no > > formatting from the original, it will retain spaces between words and line [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > the short lines to my right indent marker (say 15 instead of 11). However on > the down side, this causes mumerous words to merge together without a space. > As I posted later, the search term I gave you *does* work provided you have > "Use wildcards" checked. See > http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/CleanWebText.htm for more on taking > care of short lines. Dear Suzanne, Yes you are right it does work perfectly! I think my problem before was that I had stray spaces in the 'replace with' box. Anyway I am using first replace ^p with (space) and then replace {2,} with (space) This is doing a great job on the text - giving me long lines and no multiple spaces - all that remains is to re-insert the paragraph breaks = easy peasy. Thanks v much to all for your help. :) |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2008 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.