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Removing paragraph-format invisibles in Pages document

I've just pasted a long bit of column-width text from a web page into a new Pages document. Ealech line from the original is now formatted with an invisible paragraph break. I'd like to remove all of those particular invisibles, but I can't get Find/Replace to accept a copy/paste of the paragraph symbol - instead it highlights all of the "dot" format symbols that create the spaces between words. Would be grateful for any/all help.

Posted on Nov 30, 2021 4:34 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Nov 30, 2021 6:32 PM

Hi eamon,


Try this:

  • In the View menu, choose show invisibles
  • Select one of the Paragraph Break characters.
  • Press command-E (or go Edit > Find>use selection for Find

(Check for a number in the box at the right end of the Search for box. The number is a count of the number of the search item found in the document.)



  • Enter a single space character in the Replace with box.
  • TEST that the correct character is being searched for by clicking the > arrow in the < > pair of buttons at the right end of the row below the Search for and Replace with boxes.

The click should move the selection fill to the next occurrence of the searched for item, and highlight the fill marker in yellow.

  • Click 'Replace and Find' repeatedly to delete and replace each paragraph marker, with the option of choosing to keep or replace each mark, OR

OR

  • Click Replace ALL to do a one click sweep of the whole document, replacing ALL the paragraph breaks with spaces.


Regards,

Barry



4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 30, 2021 6:32 PM in response to eamonkinnell

Hi eamon,


Try this:

  • In the View menu, choose show invisibles
  • Select one of the Paragraph Break characters.
  • Press command-E (or go Edit > Find>use selection for Find

(Check for a number in the box at the right end of the Search for box. The number is a count of the number of the search item found in the document.)



  • Enter a single space character in the Replace with box.
  • TEST that the correct character is being searched for by clicking the > arrow in the < > pair of buttons at the right end of the row below the Search for and Replace with boxes.

The click should move the selection fill to the next occurrence of the searched for item, and highlight the fill marker in yellow.

  • Click 'Replace and Find' repeatedly to delete and replace each paragraph marker, with the option of choosing to keep or replace each mark, OR

OR

  • Click Replace ALL to do a one click sweep of the whole document, replacing ALL the paragraph breaks with spaces.


Regards,

Barry



Removing paragraph-format invisibles in Pages document

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