The approach Stuart describes for Word will not mess up formatting. I've used the following Word macro for the past several years to clean up extra paragraphs and extra spaces. YMMV, but in Word 2000 and Word 2003, it has worked well for me. It may appear to have a few extra iterations of the replace command than seems necessary at first blush, but in my experience, they do no harm and tackle those documents truly replete with extra paragraphs and spaces.
Sub SpaceAndParagraphRemover() ' ' SpaceAndParagraphRemover Macro ' Macro recorded 6/16/2003 by Jim Pinkham ' Selection.Find.ClearFormatting Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting With Selection.Find .Text = " " .Replacement.Text = " " .Forward = True .Wrap = wdFindContinue .Format = False .MatchCase = False .MatchWholeWord = False .MatchWildcards = False .MatchSoundsLike = False .MatchAllWordForms = False End With Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll With Selection.Find .Text = "^p^p" .Replacement.Text = "^p" .Forward = True .Wrap = wdFindContinue .Format = False .MatchCase = False .MatchWholeWord = False .MatchWildcards = False .MatchSoundsLike = False .MatchAllWordForms = False End With Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll End Sub HTH, Jim -----Original Message----- From: framers-bounces+jim.pinkham=voith....@lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-bounces+jim.pinkham=voith.com at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Stuart Rogers Sent: Friday, October 05, 2007 9:10 AM To: Pat Christenson Cc: framers at lists.frameusers.com Subject: Re: Searching for empty paragraphs Pat Christenson wrote: > Hi all - > > For years I've used the following wildcat search string to locate > empty > paragraphs: > > ^\p > (start of line followed by paragraph ending) > > It stopped working a couple releases ago (I believe in FM 7, maybe > earlier). Any suggestions? > > If this doesn't work in FM, does anyone know a way of getting rid of > them in Word? I have a bunch of conversion work coming up. In Word, search on ^p^p to find empty pgfs; replace with ^p. (A brief experiment indicates it won't mess up formatting, but you'd be wise to verify.) HTH, -- Stuart Rogers Technical Communicator Phoenix Geophysics Limited Toronto, ON, Canada +1 (416) 491-7340 x 325 srogers phoenix-geophysics com "On the contrary." -- Henrik Ibsen (last words, after a nurse said he "seemed a little better.") _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to Framers as jim.pinkham at voith.com. Send list messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscribe at lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/jim.pinkham%40voith. com Send administrative questions to listadmin at frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.