Word Tips

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If you copy a document from the web, pdf or word document and it contains a large number of unnecessary returns at the end of each line of text then you will need to use the Find and replace feature in Word to quickly remove them.

Before you start, click on the Show/Hide button .

You will now see all the paragraph breaks (¶) and the line breaks (↵) plus other formatting characters.

You are going to make three passes of your document using Find/Replace.
We will use excess paragraph marks in the example.

  • First - Remove all double paragraph marks and replace them with some garbage characters that you'll use as placeholders for where you want the real paragraph marks.
  • Second - Then you will find all the single paragraph marks and replace them with a space.
  • Finally -  You will find all the placeholders and replace them with the paragraph marks you do want.

Removing Unwanted Characters

  1. Press Ctrl+H to open Find/Replace.
  2. In Find, type ^p^p, then press the TAB key.
    (You get ^ by pressing Shift+6; you MUST use a lower case p.)
  3. In Replace, type XXX. (XXX is the placeholder).
  4. Click Replace All.
  5. In Find, type ^p, press TAB, then in Replace press the spacebar once.
  6. Click Replace All.
  7. In Find type XXX, press TAB, then in Replace type ^p.
  8. Click Replace All.

All the excess paragraph marks should now be gone and you should have a cleaner document.

If the text has line breaks, then substitute ^p with ^l (that's lower case L for London).

To get rid of the > marks, type > in Find, and then make sure there is nothing in Replace before clicking Replace All.

If you have lots of documents with these unwanted formatting codes in them, then it is quicker to record a macro and assign it to a keyboard command. Then you'll only have to press a key or two and all these changes will be made for you.

Macro to remove unwanted characters

  1. Open a Word document.
  2. Go to the Tools menu select Macro4Record New Macro.

The Record Macro window is displayed.

  1. Type a name for the macro for example CleanDocument.
  2. Click on the Toolbar button.

The Customize window is displayed.

  1. Click and drag the macro on to the toolbar.

  1. Click .
  2. Type in a new name. .
  3. Click Close.
  4. A toolbar is displayed. The square button is "Stop"; the other is "Pause". Your cursor now has a tiny cassette tape icon attached to it—this shows that you are in recording mode.
  5. Follow the instructions above in removing unwanted characters.
  6. Click on the Stop button to stop recording.

When you have any document to  remove unwanted characters click on the button.
Avoid Accidentally Opening Web Pages in Word

Selecting text in a Word document can be tricky when that text contains a hyperlink. If you click in the wrong place, you could accidentally open a Web page or a linked document.

With Word 2002, you can have more control over the way hyperlinks function in your document. Now you can modify hyperlink text easily without inadvertently opening a Web page. Here's how:

  1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Edit tab.
  2. Select the Use CTRL+Click to follow hyperlink check box.

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