paragraph breaks heartburn (MS Word 2007)

route1traveler said:

I have a Word 2007 document. I need to take out the paragraph breaks introduced when I press the "enter" key, and replace them with breaks put in via the ruler at the top of the page. Help?

Click to expand...

Presumably you're referring to tabs, right? Not paragraph breaks? You want Word to indent the paragraphs automatically instead of using tabs? If so, change your normal style by clicking on Format/Styles-and-Formatting. Select the Normal style in the list of styles and click “modify.” Click Format/Paragraph, then under Indentation/Special click “first line.” This should show a first line indent of .5", which you can change to whatever you want.

Now, if you’ve been manually inserting tabs, you can eliminate all tabs in the document by clicking Edit/Find, typing ^t into the find box, and typing nothing in the replace box, then clicking “replace all.” If you've been separating paragraphs with double lines, type ^p^p in the find box and ^p in the replace box, then click "replace all." Be careful when you do the latter thing, esp. if you've been spacing things with extra paragraph breaks (not recommended), as this will cut the number of line spaces by half.

I'm glad you followed that, Julie, and I hope you've guessed right..

Unless I'm mistaken putting indents in per 'the ruler' will indent everything -not just paragraphs - and I'm neither sure what the poster's problem is or nor what they are trying to achieve.

Bufty said:

Unless I'm mistaken putting indents in per 'the ruler' will indent everything -not just paragraphs - and I'm neither sure what the poster's problem is or nor what they are trying to achieve.

Click to expand...

Right, if you move the top marker over, that will indent the first line and it will indent chapter headings and so forth as well, so best to change that only with the normal style. Though the poster will still have that problem with headings if he doesn't realize he's working with styles and isn't using heading1 for chapter headings.

(the first poster may have no idea what a heading is)

Best guess: The idea is to remove the apparent empty space from between paragraphs, and indent them.

Ecucational exercise: Highlight a paragraph. Right-click it. Select "Paragraph" from the context menu. You will see what you need there, spacing and indentation. Mass reformatting can be accomplished by selecting everything (Ctrl+A) and doing that, or through search and replace, paragraph formatting.

Better yet, give up the idea that a manuscript must look like a book -- unless you are self-pubbing.

Word also has something called "Help".

Julie Worth said:

Right, if you move the top marker over, that will indent the first line and it will indent chapter headings and so forth as well, so best to change that only with the normal style. Though the poster will still have that problem with headings if he doesn't realize he's working with styles and isn't using heading1 for chapter headings.

Click to expand...

Actually, it's best not to use the Normal style. It's best to create a custom paragraph style. Too much stuff is 'tied' to Normal, and it's too easy for things to revert back. Create a new style, give it a descriptive name (mine is para1), base it on 'nothing', and define it to look how you want.

Changing a paragraph's formatting simply by adjusting that paragraph's settings will lead to Many Problems down the road. If you want to make global changes to how your paragraphs look, change the style definition, don't just select all and change the format in the Paragraph window. If you just do the latter, your settings can be reset to the default in any number of (often mysterious) ways.

If you're using Word, take the time and effort to learn how to use styles. The program is style-based, and until you learn how to use them effectively, you'll fight Word to make it do what you want.

Well. Line breaks introduced by hitting "enter" can be removed via menu "start" -> "edit" -> "Replace"...
Expand the dialog box.
You can search for special formats, in this case the paragraph mark, and can replace it for example with a space character.
However, this may remove ALL paragraph breaks from your document, leaving you with just one very, very long paragraph.

There may be a way around that, but tell us first: Is that your problem?

Thank you guys for the help. This is useful to me, too because I've been wondering how to indent the first line of every paragraph without messing up the formatting, so I put this in my favorites for future reference.

I'm sorry guys, but how do you get to Format>Styles and Formatting?

Magali said:

I'm sorry guys, but how do you get to Format>Styles and Formatting?

Click to expand...

In Word, look at the top where it says Format. Click on it and a drop down menu will appear. Click on Styles and Formatting. (That's for Word 2003. In 2007 MS screwed things up. Since I use 2003, you'll have to look for it if you're using the 2007 disaster.)

Edit: Here's a cool page that shows where the 2003 commands went in 2007. So in this case it would be Home/Styles.

Julie Worth said:

In Word, look at the top where it says Format. Click on it and a drop down menu will appear. Click on Styles and Formatting. (That's for Word 2003. In 2007 MS screwed things up. Since I use 2003, you'll have to look for it if you're using the 2007 disaster.)

Edit: Here's a cool page that shows where the 2003 commands went in 2007. So in this case it would be Home/Styles.

Click to expand...

Yes, I am using Word 2007. I am going to look at the link you just gave me. Thanks.

The OP poster sounds very unfamiliar with MS Word, so the Styles etc. may be a bit beyond the poster just yet.

Guys, I can't find the formatting pane anywhere in MS Word 2007 but I did see a Styles pane. What do I click on there to get the first line of every paragraph indented from now on?

The styles pane has a an arrow at the bottom right of the pane. Click on that.

Also use the help files...MS is good at creating detailed help files. Click on the little question mark in the top right of the Word window then do a search for creating styles.

You can also right click while in any paragraph in your document. Then select Paragraph then the formatting dialog box will display

Magali said:

Guys, I can't find the formatting pane anywhere in MS Word 2007 but I did see a Styles pane. What do I click on there to get the first line of every paragraph indented from now on?

Click to expand...

The Styles pane is what you want. When you change the settings in a style using that pane, they take permanent effect. In that document. Once you have everything defined the way you like it, you can use that document as a template for future manuscripts.

To change to a first line indent, here's what you do:

1. Open the Styles pane.
2. Select the style you want to change (it defaults to the style of the paragraph your cursor is in), and click the down arrow to the right of the style name.
3. Select Modify from the popup menu.
4. When the Modify Style window is displayed, click the Format button in the bottom left corner, then select Paragraph from the popup menu.
5. When the Paragraph window is displayed, go to the Indentation section (middle) and select 'First line' in the Special field.
6. Specify the distance you want the first line indented in the By field.
7. Click OK on both windows to close them.
8. Save your file.

You should explore the rest of the options available in the Modify Style window and from its Format button.

RJK said:

You can also right click while in any paragraph in your document. Then select Paragraph then the formatting dialog box will display

Click to expand...

That only changes the formatting of the paragraph you're in, not the permanent definition of the paragraph style.

You guys, I finally figured it out! Ok here is what I did. I wrote my paragraph without indenting it, then I clicked on it, and then I went to page layout, and then I clicked under the indent and spacing tab to open the special options and I clicked First line and the by pane automatically said "0.5" I am going to do this in all my documents from now on. Thanks for all the help!

Magali said:

You guys, I finally figured it out! Ok here is what I did. I wrote my paragraph without indenting it, then I clicked on it, and then I went to page layout, and then I clicked under the indent and spacing tab to open the special options and I clicked First line and the by pane automatically said "0.5" I am going to do this in all my documents from now on. Thanks for all the help!

Click to expand...

I don't know about Word 2007, but in Word 2003 this is not a good approach. It will change the present paragraph and subsequent paragraphs, but it won't change the style and it won't change what you've already written. You're overriding the automatic features of Word, and that is never a good idea.

Julie Worth said:

I don't know about Word 2007, but in Word 2003 this is not a good approach. It will change the present paragraph and subsequent paragraphs, but it won't change the style and it won't change what you've already written. You're overriding the automatic features of Word, and that is never a good idea.

Click to expand...

I only needed to change what I'm writing from now on. I am using Word 2007.

Magali said:

You guys, I finally figured it out! Ok here is what I did. I wrote my paragraph without indenting it, then I clicked on it, and then I went to page layout, and then I clicked under the indent and spacing tab to open the special options and I clicked First line and the by pane automatically said "0.5" I am going to do this in all my documents from now on. Thanks for all the help!

Click to expand...

Julie Worth said:

I don't know about Word 2007, but in Word 2003 this is not a good approach. It will change the present paragraph and subsequent paragraphs, but it won't change the style and it won't change what you've already written. You're overriding the automatic features of Word, and that is never a good idea.

Click to expand...

Yep. All you did was change the definition of the current paragraph. In essence, you customised that one paragraph.

It's true that if you get to the end of that paragraph and hit Enter, the next paragraph will have the same definition, and so on. But there are a zillion different things that can cause the definition to revert to its formal definition. (Word is wonky this way.)

That's why you have to do what I explained above and change the actual formal definition of that paragraph style. If you change the style, the change is permanent. Any time you create a new paragraph of that style, it'll have your settings.

And it's best to create custom styles instead of using the delivered ones. The delivered ones can do unpredictable things. For now, get comfortable with changing some style definitions; but down the road, it's worth the investment of time to create custom styles.

Where's the Styles Pane? All I see is "Change Styles" and when I click on that it doesn't show everything that you guys are telling me.

Magali said:

Where's the Styles Pane? All I see is "Change Styles" and when I click on that it doesn't show everything that you guys are telling me.

Click to expand...

On the Home ribbon, just to the right of the center, you'll see a bunch of icons with ABCs on them. At the bottom of the group, you'll see the word 'Styles'. In the bottom right corner of that grouping of icons, you'll see a little arrow pointing down and right. Click that little arrow to launch the Styles pane.

Terie said:

On the Home ribbon, just to the right of the center, you'll see a bunch of icons with ABCs on them. At the bottom of the group, you'll see the word 'Styles'. In the bottom right corner of that grouping of icons, you'll see a little arrow pointing down and right. Click that little arrow to launch the Styles pane.

Click to expand...

Ok I looked earlier and I saw that. What do I click on to create a brand-new style to indent every first line?

Magali said:

Ok I looked earlier and I saw that. What do I click on to create a brand-new style to indent every first line?

Click to expand...

I'm off work for the rest of the week and don't have access right now to a computer with 2007 installed. I think there's a button at the bottom of the pane for 'new' or 'add', but I can't remember for sure.

As has been mentioned earlier, you can find all of this information in the online help for Word. There are also entire web pages out there that explain how to use styles. It's a more efficient use of time for you to help yourself at this point. Google 'working with styles in word 2007' and you'll find a whole mess of pages with information and instructions.

Terie said:

I'm off work for the rest of the week and don't have access right now to a computer with 2007 installed. I think there's a button at the bottom of the pane for 'new' or 'add', but I can't remember for sure.

As has been mentioned earlier, you can find all of this information in the online help for Word. There are also entire web pages out there that explain how to use styles. It's a more efficient use of time for you to help yourself at this point. Google 'working with styles in word 2007' and you'll find a whole mess of pages with information and instructions.

Click to expand...

I understand, and I didn't mean to bother you or upset you, so I apologize if I did. You are a wonderful, very nice person and I appreciate all the help you've given me. I am reading an article about paragraph styles right now in Word.