I have been sent a long text file I need to edit. However, whenever I change the text I get short lines at various points. How can I avoid this? - M Thomas, Churchdown.. It sounds as if the author of the text has pressed Return at the end of every line. To remove all the unwanted Return characters without affecting the real paragraph ends you need to replace the Return character with spaces.
To do this you need to mark the true paragraph ends with a temporary symbol, erase all unwanted Return characters, then replace the temporary symbols with Return characters. Choose Edit, Replace. In Find What type p p (used by Word to represent Return). In Replace With type % (or any character not in the document). Click Replace All. Now change Find What to p and Replace With to a single space character. Choose Replace All again. This will remove all unwanted RETURN characters. Finally, in Find What type % (or whatever you chose to mark the paragraph ends) and p p in Replace With. Now, when you click Replace All the proper paragraph ends will reappear.
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