dce@smsc.sony.com (David Elliott) (12/10/89)
It seems to me that there should be a way for me to select an area of
text and have it reformatted into a single paragraph, but I haven't
found anything in the documentation. All I've found is how to remove
a single paragraph mark, and that's pretty tedious in most cases.
Can someone give me a hint?
--
David Elliott
dce@smsc.sony.com | ...!{uunet,mips}!sonyusa!dce
(408)944-4073
"It's bigger than a breadbox, and smaller than the planet Jupiter."arons@ccnysci.UUCP (Michael Arons) (12/11/89)
In article <1989Dec10.025722.424@smsc.sony.com> dce@smsc.Sony.COM (David Elliott) writes: >It seems to me that there should be a way for me to select an area of >text and have it reformatted into a single paragraph, but I haven't >found anything in the documentation. All I've found is how to remove >a single paragraph mark, and that's pretty tedious in most cases. Just select the set of lines, due a change of ^p to a space and click on "change selection". Michael Arons arons@sci.ccny.cuny.edu Division of Science arons@ccnysci.uucp City College of New York
long@rainbo.enet.dec.com (Richard C. Long) (12/11/89)
In article <1989Dec10.025722.424@smsc.sony.com>, dce@smsc.sony.com (David Elliott) writes... >It seems to me that there should be a way for me to select an area of >text and have it reformatted into a single paragraph, but I haven't [...] >Can someone give me a hint? Yes. Word allows you to change certain control characters. As I recall, the code for the paragraph mark is ^P. So, select the text, except for the final paragraph mark, to be converted to a single paragraph, bring up the change dialog and type ^P (that's caret followed by P) for what to change, and nothing (or perhaps a space) for the "Change To" thing, and click "Change Selection." Good luck, Rich
jhenry@randvax.UUCP (Jim Henry) (12/12/89)
The following procedure will convert text which has a paragraph mark at the
end of every line into text with one paragraph mark per paragraph. This is
easier to do than to read so don't be discouraged. ALWAYS work with a copy
since mistakes will tend to be disasterous. I'm sure that this procedure
could be adapted to work on a text selection rather than a whole document
but I haven't really given that any thought.
1) Figure out the pattern that means paragraph break in the original text.
Common patterns are two consectuative paragrapgh marks (a blank line) or
paragraph mark followed by a tab or by several, hopefully a constant number
of spaces (an indent). I'll assume it is two paragraph marks in the
explanation below.
2) Figure out an ASCII character that does not appear in the original text,
for use as a paragraph marker. I'll use { as an example in the following
discussion.
3) Replace all instances of the paragraph break pattern with the paragraph
marker. For example replace ^p^p (Word notation for two paragraph marks)
with {, choosing "Change All".
4) Replace all remaining paragraph marks with either a space or with
nothing so that everything turns into one big paragraph. The need for a
space is determined by what the line ends look like in the original.
5) Replace the paragraph marker with a paragraph mark, i.e. Replace { with
^p.
Once you get the hang of this, it really is quick and easy as long as the
original text isn't too heavily "formatted".rcojs@gecko.co.rmit.oz (James Scott) (12/15/89)
From article <1989Dec10.025722.424@smsc.sony.com>, by dce@smsc.sony.com (David Elliott): > It seems to me that there should be a way for me to select an area of > text and have it reformatted into a single paragraph, but I haven't > found anything in the documentation. All I've found is how to remove > a single paragraph mark, and that's pretty tedious in most cases. > > Can someone give me a hint? > > -- > David Elliott > dce@smsc.sony.com | ...!{uunet,mips}!sonyusa!dce > (408)944-4073 > "It's bigger than a breadbox, and smaller than the planet Jupiter." One solution is to select the text you want to combine, then use the "change" command to replace ^p (paragraph mark) with a space. In the dialog box, select "change selection", and the selected text will form one paragraph. --- James Scott, Dept. of Communication & Electrical Eng. RMIT ACSnet: rcojs@gecko.co.rmit.oz UUCP: ...!uunet!munnari!gecko.co.rmit.oz!rcojs CSNET: rcojs@gecko.co.rmit.oz ARPA: rcojs%gecko.co.rmit.oz@uunet.uu.net BITNET: rcojs%gecko.co.rmit.oz@CSNET-RELAY PHONE: + 61 3 660 3248 SNAIL MAIL: Department of Communication and Electrical Engineering, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 2476V, MELBOURNE VIC 3001 AUSTRALIA