Re: Eliminating .txt file hard returns

[Elna Tymes <etymes -at- LTS -dot- COM>]

Gary Robinson wrote:

> A colleague of mine downloaded an important reference document from the
> Internet.  This document arrived as a .txt file containing hundreds (at
> least) superfluous hard returns.  Currently the document is 555 pages
> long.  We figure it is actually about a third of that length without the
> extra returns.  Does anyone have any suggestions of how to automatically
> remove these returns?

Depends on which word processor you're using, but both Word and Frame have the
ability to do this.

To check it out first, select a paragraph rather than the whole document and
try the process below. If you get the results you want, then select the whole
document and use the same process.

In Word:  On the Edit menu, choose Replace. Then click the Special button (at
the bottom of the dialog box), and choose Manual Line Break from the list that
appears. That will put a character representation of the Manual Line Break in
the 'Find What' box.  For the 'Replace with' box, again click the Special
button and select White space from the list.  Then click the Replace All
button.

In Frame: Carefully select one example of the hard carriage return (you may
need to turn on Paragraph marks to see it) and copy it. Then on the Edit menu,
choose Find/Change.  In the Find box, select Character Tag, then paste your
carriage return into the field.  In the Change to box, either leave it blank or
press the Delete key. Then click the Change All button.

Sneaky, no?

Elna Tymes
Los Trancos Systems

 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=