2009/9/21 James Elliott <[email protected]> > I have a list I have copied from the Internet and pasted into a Write > document (I used Notepad to remove Internet formatting on the way through). > > Each line of the list starts with a tab - I want to get rid of the tabs. > How can I use Search & Replace to do this? If I try and enter <tab> in the > "Look for" field, all it does is to reposition the cursor in the "Replace > with" field box. How can I tell Search & Replace that is the hidden > character "tab" I am actually looking for, and want replaced? > > Many thanks, James > > In the Find & Replace dialogue:
- click "More options" - check "Regular expressions" - in the Find box enter "\t". That is backslash followed by lowercase t. No quotes - in the Replace box enter whatever you like; to remove all tabs enter nothing at all into the Replace box - click "Replace all" - Done This will remove all tabs, including embedded ones, within the text. If you only want to remove the *single* leading tab on each line but leave others alone, precede the backslash in the Find by by a circumflex "^" so you'd enter "^\t" without the quotes. The time spent reading up on Regular Expressions, either in OOo's Help or in any of a quadzillion online documents, will be repaid with interest ... -- Harold Fuchs London, England Please reply *only* to [email protected]
