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Removing Extra Spaces Between Words or Sentences

Anonymous
2012-05-06T15:36:19+00:00

Is there a way to remove all double spaces between words or sentences throughout the entire text without having to go through the entire document and remove the extra spaces manually?

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  1. HansV 462.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2012-05-06T16:10:23+00:00

    Press Ctrl+H to activate the Replace dialog.

    Enter two spaces in the Find what box, and one space in the Replace with box.

    Click Replace All.

    If you don't like the result, press Ctrl+Z to undo the replacement.

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  1. Paul Edstein 82,861 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2012-05-06T23:02:43+00:00

    A more sophisticated approach is to use a wildcard Find/Replace, where:

    Find = ([ ])[ ]{1,}

    Replace = \1

    This will replace any string or more than one space (eg two, three, ten spaces) with a single space.

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  2. Paul Edstein 82,861 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2014-04-15T21:21:39+00:00

    Did you check the 'use wildcards' option? Also, if you're using a language that doesn't use a comma separator, you will need to use a semi-colon, as in:

    Find = ([ ])[ ]{1;}

    Replace = \1

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  3. Paul Edstein 82,861 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2014-04-15T22:55:00+00:00

    Thank you for your quick reply Paul.

    Although I've checked wildcard option it still won't work for me .

    I simply have a word file (in English) with 20 or so lines with 2 or 3 words in each line. I basically want to compact all to one paragraph.

    That is not what the Find/Replace expressions in this thread are for! They're for removing spaces between sentences, not paragraph breaks or line breaks between paragraphs & lines. For what you're now describing, use a wildcard Find/Replace where:

    Find = [^13^l]{1,}

    Replace = ,^32

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  4. Suzanne S Barnhill 277.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2014-04-15T22:43:57+00:00

    If each line ends in a paragraph or line break, you don't need wildcards. Just enter ^p (for a paragraph break) or ^l (for a line break) in the "Find what" box and a comma and space in the "Replace with" box. To see what you're dealing with, display nonprinting characters (Ctrl+*); see http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/NonPrintChars.htm.

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