Ahh, your method is easier/simpler. At the same time, I've used a lot of
text editors over the years and the method I described seems to work
well. I'm not sure how universal your method is as I never knew about it
before, so thanks for that. I've also used my method for tabs in a
similar way. You are correct that replacing spaces would make it more
readable. There are times when I just wanted to remove the returns out
of something that somehow got broken up by an intermediary formatter.
This most often happens with some mailing lists (not this one) which
break paragraphs into 80 character lines, which can be annoying.
CB
Tim Kilburn wrote:
Chris,
You wrote: I think this is because you want to search for Return but
hitting return does the default action for search/replace. The way I
get around this is to copy paste a return into the search field. Go to
the end of one line in your document, hit shift+rightarrow to select
the return, Apple-C to copy the return, then Apple-F for find/replace,
then Apple-V to paste the return into the Find field and then VO-down
three times to land on the Replace-All button. Note that pressing
control-option changes this button to be "In Selection" instead of
"Find All" so you'll need to be sure to let go of the VO keys and then
press space to activate the "Find All". At this point all the hard
returns should be have been replaced by nothing.
TK: As I mentioned in the note below, while in the Find window with
the search field having focus, you can hold down the option key while
pressing the return key to have TextEdit find the hard returns. I
suggested putting a space in the Replace field so that it would be
just like a regular paragraph where TextEdit places the soft returns
where necessary. Sorry if I was not as clear as I should have been.
Your method of the copy/paste does work but using the option key is
more universal. That is, you can use it to find hard returns, , tabs
and other such invisible characters.
HTH.
Later...
Tim Kilburn wrote:
Hi Dennis,
You asked: I'm trying to remove hard returns from a plain text
document in Text Edit. In the find portion it doesn't allow me to
enter anything. Any ideas?
TK: What do you mean by "it doesn't allow you to enter anything".
If you mean that TextEdit won't let you enter anything at all in the
Find and Replace fields, then we have problems. If you wish to find
hard returns though, hold down the option key while pressing the
return key when in the Find field. Then you can put a spacebar in
the Replace field and then replace all.
HTH.
Later...
Tim Kilburn
& Carter the Canine
Fort McMurray, AB Canada
Tim Kilburn
& Carter the Canine
Fort McMurray, AB Canada
