Formating text to fit letter size paper

[claudehollett]

I am running Office 2003 and have downloaded a text copy of a book that is 101 pages in length. Each line of text would fit on a page about 5 inches wide and has a hard return at the end of every line. Paragraphs are seperated by a blank line which also has a hard return. What is the easiest way to reformat the text to fit on letter size paper?

 

[jdc]

Hi

You could try this, using Ms Word, open up the text document and have the cursor at the beginning of the text, go into File, Page Setup, Paper, and set size to Letter.

Then choose your margins to be used and switch on the "Show/Hide" button that looks like a P round the wrong way. This will display the special characters.

Then go into Edit, Replace and pick a paragraph symbol to be replaced by a word space symbol.

Depending whether the paragraph breaks are 2 line spaces or an increased space this could create more work by having to manually add the extra space for proper paragraphs which you can add under Format, Paragraph.

HTH

John

 

[claudehollett]

Thanks for the help jdc but it wasn't quite what I needed.The problem is getting rid of the paragraph mark (PM) at the end of each line which prevents the text from automatically formatting to any text page width as established in File|Page Setup. Here is a solution that works.

(PM) as shown below represents the paragraph mark as seen with the Show/Hide button on the toolbar. The * could be replaced with any symbol above the digits on the number keys just make sure whatever symbol you use doesn't appear in the text you are trying to reformat .

Copy the text you want to format to another file and work in the new file (in case you make a mistake in this process your orriginal information is still ok).
The text is in the following format:
Line(PM)
Line(PM)
Line(PM)
Line(PM)
(PM) Blank Line

You want text in this format:
Line
Line
Line
Line(PM)
(PM) Blank Line

In MS Word using Find/Replace (Ctrl F), Click the Replace tab. Place your cursor in the Find what: line. If showing, click the More button, then the Special button, then paragraph mark(PM). Now (PM) is showing in the Find what: line. Repeat this process so that the line shows (PM)(PM).

Next, place your curson in the Replace with: line. Using the process above place (PM)*(PM) in this line. Click the Replace All button.

Your text now looks like:
Line(PM)
Line(PM)
Line(PM)
Line(PM)
*PM

Now in the Find What: line, insert (PM) as done above. Then clear all contents in the Replace with: line. Click the Replace All button. This will remove all (PM)'s from the document.

To replace the blank lines between paragraphs, do the following:
using the Find/Replace dialog box as above, type * in the Find what: line. In the Replace with: line insert (PM)(PM). Click Replace All.

Your text now looks like:
Line
Line
Line
Line(PM)
(PM) Blank Line

and will automatically reformat to the page width as set up in Page Setup.

After you delete the corresponding text in the original document and copy the newly reformatted text into it's place, your task is complete.

Hope this solution helps someone out there.