Open Office: Each line is a separate paragraph

Started by Bernadette, October 15, 2018, 06:27:42 PM

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Bernadette

I converted a PDF to a .txt document to edit it, and now each line is somehow set as a separate paragraph. I know because I turned on "nonprinting characters" and it shows paragraph breaks at the beginning of each line. Line spacing is set to single, but since each line is a separate paragraph, it looks double spaced. The only way I've found to fix it is to manually go in and remove the spaces between each "paragraph." Tell me there's a faster way, please!  :-\
My Lord and my God.

Gardener

"If anyone does not wish to have Mary Immaculate for his Mother, he will not have Christ for his Brother." - St. Maximilian Kolbe

Bernadette

I gave up and put it on my other computer, which runs Word. It's removing the paragraph breaks as we speak, thanks to an old thread and Lynne's help way back when.  :P
My Lord and my God.

Maximilian

Quote from: Bernadette on October 15, 2018, 06:27:42 PM
I converted a PDF to a .txt document to edit it, and now each line is somehow set as a separate paragraph. I know because I turned on "nonprinting characters" and it shows paragraph breaks at the beginning of each line. Line spacing is set to single, but since each line is a separate paragraph, it looks double spaced. The only way I've found to fix it is to manually go in and remove the spaces between each "paragraph." Tell me there's a faster way, please!  :-\

The paragraph returns are there in the PDF document. It's something that has driven me nuts many times. There's no magical way to remove them.

But there is an easier way than manually deleting each one.
1. Save the file as a Microsoft Word doc.
2. Do a "Find and Replace All"
3. Yes, you can put invisible characters in the "Find" box.

Unfortunately that will also delete the paragraph returns that you want between paragraphs. Putting those back in will only be 1/5 or even 1/10 the work of removing every one.

Rather than manually put them back in, however, there is probably some clever way to keep one paragraph return whenever there are 2 in a row. For example, before doing "Find and Replace All," first do a "Find and Replace All" for 2 consecutive paragraph returns, and replace them with some other special character. Then when you replace all the other paragraph returns, those will stay in place.