In Word 2002 how do I remove all those dots (.............) betwe.

[Guest]

Example:

It was a dark and stormy.........................................night.

How do I get rid of all of those dots? They are nonprinting characters. How
do I delete them? I have hundreds of pages which need this correction. It's a
serious problem for me.

Thank you.

 

[Chuck Davis]

Simply click on the Show/Hide icon on the tool bar. They don't print and are
used for format troubleshooting.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Remove unnecessary spaces using Find and Replace. Check the box for "Use
wildcards" and type this in the "Find what" box:

[space]{2,}

where [space] equals one press of the spacebar.

In the "Replace with" box, type another space. This will find all instances
of two or more spaces and replace them with a single space.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Guest]

Sorry, but I need a bit more help on this one. When I enter [space]{2,} in
the 'Find what' box it does not find spaces. Instead, it finds couplets and
triplets of words, e.g. as, ea, eas. Why is it finding words and word parts
and not spaces? Are you sure [space]{2,} is the correct coding? Because it's
not working.

Also, where you say "In the 'Replace with' box, type another space." this
leaves me clueless. Please write the exact items which go in the box. Your
phrase "type another space" is not comprehended here.

Thank you and I look forward to your reply,

Michael (Word Guy)

Remove unnecessary spaces using Find and Replace. Check the box for "Use
wildcards" and type this in the "Find what" box:

[space]{2,}

where [space] equals one press of the spacebar.

In the "Replace with" box, type another space. This will find all instances
of two or more spaces and replace them with a single space.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

Example:

It was a dark and stormy.........................................night.

How do I get rid of all of those dots? They are nonprinting characters. How
do I delete them? I have hundreds of pages which need this correction. It's a
serious problem for me.

Thank you.

 

[Guest]

Hello Chuck....It's more than just not seeing the dots on the screen. I have
to get rid of them completely so that my words are pulled together on the
screen for writing and editing purposes. I have to go from:

It was a dark and stormy............................night

to:

It was a dark and stormy night

so that I can read it on the screen as shown above. Otherwise, I will just
be reading on the screen:

It was a dark and stormy night.

And my editor ain't gonna like that....lol.

Thank you and best wishes,

Michael (Word Guy)

 

[Jay Freedman]

Hi Michael,

Do *not* type the literal characters 's', 'p', 'a', 'c', 'e' between
the brackets. Type one space character there. The contents of the box
should look like
[ ]{2,}

In the 'Replace With' box, type one space character.

Please read http://www.gmayor.com/replace_using_wildcards.htm to see
how this works.

Sorry, but I need a bit more help on this one. When I enter [space]{2,} in
the 'Find what' box it does not find spaces. Instead, it finds couplets and
triplets of words, e.g. as, ea, eas. Why is it finding words and word parts
and not spaces? Are you sure [space]{2,} is the correct coding? Because it's
not working.

Also, where you say "In the 'Replace with' box, type another space." this
leaves me clueless. Please write the exact items which go in the box. Your
phrase "type another space" is not comprehended here.

Thank you and I look forward to your reply,

Michael (Word Guy)

Remove unnecessary spaces using Find and Replace. Check the box for "Use
wildcards" and type this in the "Find what" box:

[space]{2,}

where [space] equals one press of the spacebar.

In the "Replace with" box, type another space. This will find all instances
of two or more spaces and replace them with a single space.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

Example:

It was a dark and stormy.........................................night.

How do I get rid of all of those dots? They are nonprinting characters. How
do I delete them? I have hundreds of pages which need this correction. It's a
serious problem for me.

Thank you.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Did you not read the part that said "where [space] equals one press of the
spacebar"?

In the "Find what" box, press the spacebar and then type "{2,}" (without the
quotation marks). In the "Replace with" box, press the spacebar.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

Sorry, but I need a bit more help on this one. When I enter [space]{2,} in
the 'Find what' box it does not find spaces. Instead, it finds couplets and
triplets of words, e.g. as, ea, eas. Why is it finding words and word parts
and not spaces? Are you sure [space]{2,} is the correct coding? Because it's
not working.

Also, where you say "In the 'Replace with' box, type another space." this
leaves me clueless. Please write the exact items which go in the box. Your
phrase "type another space" is not comprehended here.

Thank you and I look forward to your reply,

Michael (Word Guy)

Remove unnecessary spaces using Find and Replace. Check the box for "Use
wildcards" and type this in the "Find what" box:

[space]{2,}

where [space] equals one press of the spacebar.

In the "Replace with" box, type another space. This will find all instances
of two or more spaces and replace them with a single space.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

Example:

It was a dark and stormy.........................................night.

How do I get rid of all of those dots? They are nonprinting

characters.
How

do I delete them? I have hundreds of pages which need this correction. It's a
serious problem for me.

Thank you.

 

[Guest]

Yes, I thought you meant [space] equals one press of the spacebar, so I
entered [space] and hit the spacebar instead of just hitting the spacebar. Us
neophytes go more by what we see than by what we are told. We are very
literal, but not very literate!

Elsewhere on the Internet I found another way of accomplishing the same
thing, so there appears to be several ways of removing extra spaces rapidly.

You have all been most helpful and I am most appreciative.

Michael (Word Guy)

Did you not read the part that said "where [space] equals one press of the
spacebar"?

In the "Find what" box, press the spacebar and then type "{2,}" (without the
quotation marks). In the "Replace with" box, press the spacebar.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

Sorry, but I need a bit more help on this one. When I enter [space]{2,} in
the 'Find what' box it does not find spaces. Instead, it finds couplets and
triplets of words, e.g. as, ea, eas. Why is it finding words and word parts
and not spaces? Are you sure [space]{2,} is the correct coding? Because it's
not working.

Also, where you say "In the 'Replace with' box, type another space." this
leaves me clueless. Please write the exact items which go in the box. Your
phrase "type another space" is not comprehended here.

Thank you and I look forward to your reply,

Michael (Word Guy)

Remove unnecessary spaces using Find and Replace. Check the box for "Use
wildcards" and type this in the "Find what" box:

[space]{2,}

where [space] equals one press of the spacebar.

In the "Replace with" box, type another space. This will find all instances
of two or more spaces and replace them with a single space.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

Example:

It was a dark and stormy.........................................night.

How do I get rid of all of those dots? They are nonprinting characters.
How
do I delete them? I have hundreds of pages which need this correction.
It's a
serious problem for me.

Thank you.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I can never remember the wildcards, so I usually just start by putting a
whole bunch of spaces in the "Find what" box and replacing till Word doesn't
find any more. Then I delete one space and run the Replace again, etc.,
reducing the "Find what" text by one space till I get down to two and Word
doesn't find any more. <g>

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

Yes, I thought you meant [space] equals one press of the spacebar, so I
entered [space] and hit the spacebar instead of just hitting the spacebar. Us
neophytes go more by what we see than by what we are told. We are very
literal, but not very literate!

Elsewhere on the Internet I found another way of accomplishing the same
thing, so there appears to be several ways of removing extra spaces rapidly.

You have all been most helpful and I am most appreciative.

Michael (Word Guy)

Did you not read the part that said "where [space] equals one press of the
spacebar"?

In the "Find what" box, press the spacebar and then type "{2,}" (without the
quotation marks). In the "Replace with" box, press the spacebar.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

Sorry, but I need a bit more help on this one. When I enter

[space]{2,}
in

the 'Find what' box it does not find spaces. Instead, it finds

couplets
and

triplets of words, e.g. as, ea, eas. Why is it finding words and word parts
and not spaces? Are you sure [space]{2,} is the correct coding?

Because
it's

not working.

Also, where you say "In the 'Replace with' box, type another space." this
leaves me clueless. Please write the exact items which go in the box. Your
phrase "type another space" is not comprehended here.

Thank you and I look forward to your reply,

Michael (Word Guy)

:

Remove unnecessary spaces using Find and Replace. Check the box for "Use
wildcards" and type this in the "Find what" box:

[space]{2,}

where [space] equals one press of the spacebar.

In the "Replace with" box, type another space. This will find all instances
of two or more spaces and replace them with a single space.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

Example:

It was a dark and stormy.........................................night.

How do I get rid of all of those dots? They are nonprinting characters.
How
do I delete them? I have hundreds of pages which need this correction.
It's a
serious problem for me.

Thank you.

 

[Guest]

That is what I did. I ran across some writer on the Internet who does it that
way. It was a great relief to see my book ms. shrink from over 1200 pages
down to 700 or so...lol.

You provide us with a very great service.

I find it odd that the "Dummies" guy doesn't explain it very well. Anyway,
you're just tops.

Joy to you,

Michael (Word Guy)

I can never remember the wildcards, so I usually just start by putting a
whole bunch of spaces in the "Find what" box and replacing till Word doesn't
find any more. Then I delete one space and run the Replace again, etc.,
reducing the "Find what" text by one space till I get down to two and Word
doesn't find any more. <g>

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

Yes, I thought you meant [space] equals one press of the spacebar, so I
entered [space] and hit the spacebar instead of just hitting the spacebar. Us
neophytes go more by what we see than by what we are told. We are very
literal, but not very literate!

Elsewhere on the Internet I found another way of accomplishing the same
thing, so there appears to be several ways of removing extra spaces rapidly.

You have all been most helpful and I am most appreciative.

Michael (Word Guy)

Did you not read the part that said "where [space] equals one press of the
spacebar"?

In the "Find what" box, press the spacebar and then type "{2,}" (without the
quotation marks). In the "Replace with" box, press the spacebar.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

Sorry, but I need a bit more help on this one. When I enter [space]{2,}
in
the 'Find what' box it does not find spaces. Instead, it finds couplets
and
triplets of words, e.g. as, ea, eas. Why is it finding words and word
parts
and not spaces? Are you sure [space]{2,} is the correct coding? Because
it's
not working.

Also, where you say "In the 'Replace with' box, type another space." this
leaves me clueless. Please write the exact items which go in the box. Your
phrase "type another space" is not comprehended here.

Thank you and I look forward to your reply,

Michael (Word Guy)

:

Remove unnecessary spaces using Find and Replace. Check the box for "Use
wildcards" and type this in the "Find what" box:

[space]{2,}

where [space] equals one press of the spacebar.

In the "Replace with" box, type another space. This will find all
instances
of two or more spaces and replace them with a single space.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so
all may benefit.

Example:

It was a dark and
stormy.........................................night.

How do I get rid of all of those dots? They are nonprinting
characters.
How
do I delete them? I have hundreds of pages which need this correction.
It's a
serious problem for me.

Thank you.