Replacing Tabs

[Guest]

I am building a dictionary online, using a Word document as my source. I
have put tabs into the Word document to distinguish the entries from the
headings. But now I wish to "replace" the tabs with nothing; i.e., to remove
the tabs.

I have searched everywhere on the "replace" function (control H) and cannot
see a way to remove tabs.

Does anyone know how to do it?

Thanks,

Unity 22

 

[Jay Freedman]

The code ^t represents a tab in the Replace dialog. If you don't
want to remember the codes, click the More button to expand the dialog
and then click the Special button at the bottom, then click Tab in the
list of special things you can search for.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.

 

[Guest]

Sorry, Jay. I've tried that particular solution and Word tells me that it
does not recognize any instances of ^t. So that particular solution does not
allow me to replace tabs.

But thanks anyways. Any other solutions would be appreciated.

Steve

 

[Jay Freedman]

There are two possible reasons the Replace is telling you it can't find any
tabs when you search for ^t.

One possibility is that there really aren't any tab characters in the
document, and what you think are tab characters are really paragraph indents
or space characters. To determine that, turn on the display of nonprinting
characters by clicking the ¶ button on the toolbar. If there are tab
characters, they'll appear as small black arrows pointing to the right (see
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/NonPrintChars.htm).

The other possibility is that there are tab characters, but you told the
Replace operation to search for only tabs with specific formatting, or in
combination with other characters that don't occur. To test that, open the
Replace dialog and look at "Format:" line between the Find What and Replace
With boxes. If it isn't blank, click the More button and then the No
Formatting button. Also make sure the ^t code is the only thing in the Find
What box -- especially make sure there aren't any spaces before or after it.

If none of that works, you may zip the document and email it to me, and I'll
tell you what I find.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Guest]

Jay,

You are absolutely right. Graham Mayor pointed out that I had mistakenly
identified the problem as dealing with tabs when I was in fact dealing with
indents.

His correction has led me now to highlight whole sections of the dictionary
and use the "decrease indent" icon on the toolbar to remove the indent. That
is a satisfactory solution.

But thank you for your offer to zip the document and send it to you. I
appreciate your help and that of the other Word experts. I have wrestled with
this problem for a long time and now I am free of it.

Thank you,

Steve