[Solved] How To Make Short Lines Longer...

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abrogard
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[Solved] How To Make Short Lines Longer...

Post by abrogard »

I have these pages of text that came in slim column format and I would dearly like them to be the width of an A4 page.
They were originally subtitles, that's why.

I've been googling and trying various 'solutions' but haven't got there yet.

I'll cut and paste a bit into a code section:

Code: Select all

on that, I could. However, my snarky answer,
I mean, after all, this is Google and let’s

do it this way. My snarky answer is if you
were--if you died on the cross after living
That might help. There's that 'P' paragraph mark everywhere.

If I get it replaced I guess I'll finish up with one long piece of text.

Which will then have my default line width I guess. So that'd be alright.

But then I'd like it formatted to make a little sense, to help me out dealing with it by hand.

Is there a little macro somewhere or something that would make a new sentence at every Capital Letter?

And then perhaps something that would make a new para at an arbitrary point - say every ten sentences?
Last edited by Hagar Delest on Sat Apr 14, 2018 2:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: tagged [Solved].
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robleyd
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Re: How To Make Short LInes Longer...

Post by robleyd »

Try the AltSearch extension - it will handle some of the things you want. With a little experimenting you may find ways of achieving your needs.
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RoryOF
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Re: How To Make Short LInes Longer...

Post by RoryOF »

OO has a built-in paragraph limit of 64 K characters (about 15 pages, give or take).

Do your blank lines have a paragraph mark?
If so
Find ^$ Replace %%%% with more options : Regular expressions checked, Replace all.
Then
Find $ Replace <space>, More options : Regular expressions checked, Replace all.
Finally
Find %%%% Replace \n, More options : Regular Expressions checked, Replace all

I can't help with the capital letter or your paragraphing. What I have described will join the short lines and keep paragraphing at the blank lines.
 Edit: using
Find %%%% Replace <space> More options : Regular expressions unchecked. Replace all, will kill the paragraphing every two lines and give one long paragraph. Beware of the 64K char limit to a paragraph. 
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abrogard
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Re: How To Make Short LInes Longer...

Post by abrogard »

Rory that was brilliant. Thanks. And in the doing I learned a bit so that's extra good. I learn much better that way - seeing what works and doing it right there and then - than reading pages and pages...

Now I've got to proof read and correct this thing.

I see I can record my edits so that's a step in the right direction.

What about traditional proof reading marks? Like can I put marks in the text and margin notes explaining them? That kind of thing?
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RoryOF
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Re: How To Make Short LInes Longer...

Post by RoryOF »

No proof reading marks.

Edit changes will record changes you make and display them - I never use it. Remember that you can Insert an Annotation/Comment beside any text - it will show up as a yellow "Post-it" note beside the relevant text.
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abrogard
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Re: How To Make Short LInes Longer...

Post by abrogard »

Thanks. I think I'm beginning to see why you might never use it. I have discovered the comment thing and the highlight thing. Those two will do for much of what I need to do which is really commenting rather than grammatic or typo corrections.

But early on I bolded some subtitles in 'record changes' and I like the way it just changes the text colour. Where highlighting changes background and foreground just like a physical texta highlighter.

I might keep using it... we'll see...
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RoryOF
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Re: How To Make Short LInes Longer...

Post by RoryOF »

We see quite a number of damaged student files, where record changes has been enabled, and the file has been edited by several tutors/peers to the extent that almost every word has been replaced several times; in such files there can also be multiple annotations to the same place or range. Suddenly such files blow up and we are asked to recover them; often this is possible, but when I see the recovered result I always question in my own mind whether the the ability to record changes and add annotations is not being carried to extremes. Were such files mine, I would consider applying the changes and only leaving one level of recording/annotation, instead of a history going back through many revisions.

Define a character style to have the color, font weight, highlight qualities you wish and apply it to the selected text.
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abrogard
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Re: How To Make Short LInes Longer...

Post by abrogard »

Thanks for the observations. I'll remember them. Restrain the use of record changes and keep to recording only one level.

For my present task I think comments and highlights and your style suggestion are all I'll need. Haven't tried the style thing yet but I guess I define a style and then select a word or phrase and apply it there?
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RoryOF
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Re: How To Make Short LInes Longer...

Post by RoryOF »

Yes - a character style applies only to selected text, whereas a Paragraph style applies to an entire paragraph in which the cursor is situated.

Play with some of the predefined Character styles - select them from /Format /Styles and Formatting, 2nd icon from left. Double click to apply that style to the selected text.
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