Today, while doing a bit of data processing, I was required to remove all the line breaks (carriage return) in an MS-Word document and replace line breaks with a comma. I was processing a long list of email addresses with one email address per line. And I wanted this list to become a comma separated list (CSV); so as to use it somewhere else. In MS-Word, paragraph break is represented by invisible character (¶) which looks like a horizontally flipped P letter. You can toggle the visibility of this character by clicking a button given on the Home tab in MS Word. The button bears the same ¶ symbol. You should click this button to be able to see what exactly is separating the lines. If lines are breaking because of paragraph break then ¶ will appear at the end of the lines. If lines are breaking due to line break (carriage return), a left-angled arrow symbol will appear at the end. Let’s first see how to deal with paragraph break:
Open the Word document that you want to work on Press CTRL + H to bring up the Find and Replace box In the “Find what” box type ^p [this upward arrow character is called caret and is usually available on a number key] In “Replace with” box type a comma Click on Replace All button.
Thus all the paragraph breaks in you document will get replaced by a comma. You can use whatever character(s) you like in “Replace with” box. For example, if you want to replace every paragraph break with two paragraph breaks –then you should type ^p^p in “Replace with” box.
If you simply want to remove paragraph breaks; just leave the “Replace with” box blank. And you’ll get a monolithic chunk of text!
READ ALSO: How to find ant replace formatting
How to Remove / Replace Line Break, Carriage Return (Enter key) Follow the same process as given above. Instead of finding paragraph sign (^p), now you should look for line break or carriage return sign (represented by ^l). Therefore, type ^l in “Find what” box and replace it something else (or with nothing).
NOTE: This article is part of my MS Word Guide. This guide solves your day to day MS Word problems. Easily!
So, this is how you can replace line breaks, paragraph breaks and carriage returns in MS Word document. Please le t me know if you have any questions about this topic. I will be glad to try and assist you. Thank you for using TechWelkin.
I use WORD with an automatic 12 pt separation between paragraphs. But sometimes when I cut and paste into a different app, the space disappears, leaving me with one long paragraph. What I did was find/replace, putting ^p in the find and ^p^p in the replace all box. This created a manual space which survived the cut and paste process.
thanks.
^p (doesn’t work in the Find what box when the Use wildcards option is turned on), or ^13
The reason people insert a non-breaking space into a document is to keep two or more words together on the same line.
To replace the non-breaking spaces with regular spaces, use the “Replace” function (from toolbar: Edit – Replace). In the “Find what” box, type this:
^s
(^ is usually found on the same key with the number 6)
In the “Replace with” box, type a space.
Click the “find next” button to see if it finds the empty circle symbol for a non-breaking space, then click “replace.” If that does what you want, you can use the “replace all” button to change them all instantly. Good luck.
This may be desirable for a paragraph, but on a short list where I do not want this extra blank line hoew do I remove (or prevent this)
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