Microsoft KB Archive/130872

PUB2: Imported Text Contains End-of-Paragraph Marks

= PUB2: Imported Text Contains End-of-Paragraph Marks =

Q130872
- The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Publisher for Windows, versions 2.0, 2.0a -

SYMPTOMS

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When you import a plain ASCII text file into Microsoft Publisher, you will sometimes find that there is an end-of-paragraph mark after each line of text. (To see the end-of-paragraph marks, press CTRL+Y, and every hidden format character will become viewable. To hide them, press CTRL+Y again.)

These extra end-of-paragraph marks can make formatting the text into paragraphs difficult and tedious, increasing the time it takes to produce a final version of your publication.

CAUSE

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Some word processors place an end-of-paragraph mark after every line when saving formatted text as plain ASCII text. With some word processors (such as plain text editors), this may be the only choice for saving text.

RESOLUTION

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To remove unwanted end-of-paragraph marks within your entire document or within highlighted sections of text, do the following:

1. After importing the text file into your document, determine how paragraphs are delimited. For example, are paragraphs separated by blank lines, or is the first line of each paragraph indented?

2. Use the Publisher search and replace function to find these paragraph delimiters and replace them with a unique placeholder. To search and replace, do the following:

a. Click within the text frame where you want to replace end-of- paragraph marks, making sure that the flashing cursor at the front of     the first line of text.

b. From the Edit menu, choose Replace. In the Find What box, type in     the appropriate search string:

- If the paragraphs are separated by one blank line, search on two end-of-paragraph marks, one for the end of the paragraph and the other for the blank line itself. The search string therefore would be "^p^p" (without the quotation marks). The caret (^) character tells Publisher that what follows is a formatting character, and the "p" designates an end-of-paragraph mark.

- If the paragraphs are not separated by blank lines and first line of each paragraph is indented by a set number of spaces, the search string would be "^p" followed by the number of spaces in        the indent. For example, if the first line of each paragraph is        indented five spaces, the search string would be         "^p     " (without the quotation marks).

c. In the Replace With box, type in a placeholder string. The best placeholder is a series of characters that do not appear in imported text at all. Here are three possible placeholders: ###@@@, #$#$#$, @#@#@#.

d. After typing the placeholder, you can test how well your search and replace strings work by choosing the Replace button a few times. Once you are satisfied that your search string is working right, choose Replace All. This may take a few minutes to complete.

3. After Publisher replaces all the paragraph delimiters with placeholders, replace all the remaining end-of-paragraph marks in the text by  searching on "^p" (without the quotation marks) and replacing with a   single space. This also may take a few minutes.

4. Once Publisher has replaced all the remaining end-of-paragraph marks with spaces, you can replace the placeholders with end-of-paragraph marks. In the Find What box, type in the placeholder you specified in  step 2. In the Replace With box, type (for example) "^p^p" (to specify  that paragraphs be separated by one blank space) or "^p     " (to   specify that they be indented five spaces but not separated by a blank   line).

Once these steps have been completed, you now can easily apply normal paragraph formatting styles to the imported text.

Additional query words: 2.00 2.00a pub20 pub20a linefeed mspub