Find and Replace

Normalizing Your Manuscript Using Single-Spacing

4 May 2016 by Evelyn Chartres Leave a Comment

Large works of prose are prone to having formatting inconsistencies introduced over time. Quirks in your word processor may lead to unexpected behaviour. I.e. Google Docs interprets a series of spaces as tabulations during a paste operation and WordPress will insert non-breaking spaces in order to display double-spacing.

Normalising Your Manuscript Using Microsoft Word is also available on Medium.

This tutorial will reference the same text throughout. A sample is available through Google Docs. Set Microsoft Word to display formatting to get a view similar to the one below

In other situations, people will either single-space or double-space at the end of a sentence. While a single author may be diligent in applying their preference, errors may be introduced and review processes are not guaranteed to cover every instance.

This tutorial will reference the same text throughout. A sample is available through Google Docs. Set Microsoft Word to display formatting to get a view similar to the one below

“A·vision·from·the·past·becomes·a·
writer’s·deadly·obsession,”·Evelyn·
Chartres.¶

The·Portrait·is·a·Gothic·horror·
about·Victoria·Frost,·an·author·who·
develops·an·unhealthy◦obsession·for·
her·character◦·As·events·unfold,·
her·obsession·turns·on·her·forcing·
the·author·to·question·her·sanity.···
Is·this·simply·insanity·or·are·there·
other·factors·in·play?···¶

·The·Portrait·is·a·mixture·of·
contemporary·and·historical·pieces·
with·the·latter·revolving·around·
her·character·and·muse.····In·this·
novel,·→the·author·will·revisit·an·
iconic·scene·using·both·prose·and·
art·yielding·new·pieces·to·the·
puzzle.¶

The above sample has instances of tabulations and varied spacing. Using the Find and Replace capability, the manuscript will be normalized using a series of steps.

Normalizing all Spacing

Making all of the spacing in your manuscript the same should be your first step. This will reduce the amount of steps overall.

When viewing formatting symbols you may see the following three types of spacing:

Space (·) – Normal spacing created when pressing on the spacebar. Normal spacing will not keep words together;
Non-Breaking Space (◦) – Spacing which will keep words together. There is no way to insert using your keyboard; and
Tabulation (→) – A space which covers variable area. If a word is longer it will take up less spacing and more with smaller words. These are inserted when you press on the Tab key.

The goal is to transform all tabulations and non-breaking spaces into a space.

Note

This assumes you are not using tabulations or non-breaking spaces for formatting. If you do, select the area prior to using Find and Replace to narrow the scope of the search or skip converting your tabulations.

From the Home Ribbon, click on Replace as which will pop-up the Find and Replace window.

Click in the Find what textbox to make ensure the cursor placed there. Next, click on Special and select Tab Character from the pop-up. This will insert ^t and instructs Microsoft Word to search for tabulations. Alternatively, you could simply type in ^t yourself to save a few clicks.

Place a single space (·) within the Replace with textbox which replaces all tabulations with a space. When satisfied, click on Replace All.

Note

Spaces are shown below using the (·) formatting character for clarity. Make sure you use a proper space instead when looking over the screenshots.

Since there is one (1) tabulation in the sample, you should get the same results as below.

The document should look as follows with formatting in place.

“A·vision·from·the·past·becomes·a·
writer’s·deadly·obsession,”·Evelyn·
Chartres.¶

The·Portrait·is·a·Gothic·horror·
about·Victoria·Frost,·an·author·who·
develops·an·unhealthy◦obsession·for·
her·character◦·As·events·unfold,·
her·obsession·turns·on·her·forcing·
the·author·to·question·her·sanity.···
Is·this·simply·insanity·or·are·there·
other·factors·in·play?···¶

·The·Portrait·is·a·mixture·of·
contemporary·and·historical·pieces·
with·the·latter·revolving·around·
her·character·and·muse.····In·this·
novel,· the·author·will·revisit·an·
iconic·scene·using·both·prose·and·
art·yielding·new·pieces·to·the·
puzzle.¶

Now click on Special and select Nonbreaking Space from the pop-up. This will insert ^s and instructs Microsoft Word to search for tabulations. Otherwise type in ^s yourself to save a few clicks.

Place a single space (·) within the Replace with textbox which replaces all tabulations with a space. When satisfied, click on Replace All.

Since there is two (2) non-breaking spaces within our sample, you should get the same results as below.

The document should look as follows with formatting in place:

“A·vision·from·the·past·becomes·a·
writer’s·deadly·obsession,”·Evelyn·
Chartres.¶

The·Portrait·is·a·Gothic·horror·
about·Victoria·Frost,·an·author·who·
develops·an·unhealthy·obsession·for·
her·character··As·events·unfold,·
her·obsession·turns·on·her·forcing·
the·author·to·question·her·sanity.···
Is·this·simply·insanity·or·are·there·
other·factors·in·play?···¶

·The·Portrait·is·a·mixture·of·
contemporary·and·historical·pieces·
with·the·latter·revolving·around·
her·character·and·muse.····In·this·
novel,· the·author·will·revisit·an·
iconic·scene·using·both·prose·and·
art·yielding·new·pieces·to·the·
puzzle.¶

Confirming In-Paragraph Spacing

For this step, we use wildcards, so from the Find and Replace window check the Use wildcards option. Wildcards are incapable of using the special characters that were used in previous section, so the Special button displays a new set of features.

Attempts to use special characters will result in the following error:

This manuscript assumes that you will be using single-spacing between sentences. This assumption significantly reduces the amount of steps necessary and will prevent the introduction of oddities when exporting to an Ebook. An Ebook will insert non-breaking spaces to display two (2) spaces and creates an odd effect when near the end of a line or when starting one.

Insert ([.\!\?””;,…])·{2,}into the Find what textbox and \1· into the Replace with textbox.

Again, this may be confusing, so let us break it down to explain.

[.\!\?””;,…]

Provides a list of characters to match in our search. In this case, the period, exclamation point, question mark and end quotes, semi-colon, colon and ellipse are searched for. The backslashes force search to treat preceding it characters literally. i.e. the exclamation point and question mark are special characters in searches.

()

Anything within a parenthesis may be referenced in the Replace with textbox, in this case it would be \1.

·{2,}

Find instances of at least one (2) spaces to make a match. This will ensure that we do not replace spacing that is already correct.

\1·

Replaces the matching text with whatever character was matched followed by a double space.

Click on Replace All to normalize spacing at the end of a sentence. Our sample yields several results with the document looking as follows with formatting in place:

“A·vision·from·the·past·becomes·a·
writer’s·deadly·obsession,”·Evelyn·
Chartres.¶

The·Portrait·is·a·Gothic·horror·
about·Victoria·Frost,·an·author·who·
develops·an·unhealthy·obsession·for·
her·character·As·events·unfold,·
her·obsession·turns·on·her·forcing·
the·author·to·question·her·sanity.·
Is·this·simply·insanity·or·are·there·
other·factors·in·play?·¶

·The·Portrait·is·a·mixture·of·
contemporary·and·historical·pieces·
with·the·latter·revolving·around·
her·character·and·muse.·In·this·
novel,·the·author·will·revisit·an·
iconic·scene·using·both·prose·and·
art·yielding·new·pieces·to·the·
puzzle.¶

Erroneous Spacing

Erroneous spacing refers to misplaced white space located at either end of a paragraph. The sample we have been working with includes an example for both. To correct spacing at the end of a paragraph we insert ·{1,}(^13) in Find what and \1in the Replace with textboxes.

While this string is simpler than previous entries, I will break it down to explain.

·{1,}

Find instances of at least one (1) spaces to make a match.

(^13)

Special characters used to refer to a paragraph mark. Do not use ^p as this will not work with Wildcards. The parenthesis will preserve the formatting of that specific paragraph mark.

Removes the spaces and drops in the found paragraph mark.

Clicking on Replace All will yield the following result with formatting:

“A·vision·from·the·past·becomes·a·
writer’s·deadly·obsession,”·Evelyn·
Chartres.¶

The·Portrait·is·a·Gothic·horror·
about·Victoria·Frost,·an·author·who·
develops·an·unhealthy·obsession·for·
her·character·As·events·unfold,·
her·obsession·turns·on·her·forcing·
the·author·to·question·her·sanity.·
Is·this·simply·insanity·or·are·there·
other·factors·in·play?¶

·The·Portrait·is·a·mixture·of·
contemporary·and·historical·pieces·
with·the·latter·revolving·around·
her·character·and·muse.·In·this·
novel,·the·author·will·revisit·an·
iconic·scene·using·both·prose·and·
art·yielding·new·pieces·to·the·
puzzle.¶

To correct spacing for the beginning of a paragraph insert (^13)·{1,}([!^13]) in Find what then\1\2 in Replace with.

Here is a breakdown of the string.

(^13)

Find an instance of a paragraph mark. The parenthesis means this can be referenced later in Replace with using \1.

·{1,}

Find instances of at least one (1) spaces to make a match.

([!^13])

String will instruct Microsoft Word to match any character that is NOT a paragraph mark. This element will be referenced in Replace with using \2.

\1\2

Drops the paragraph mark and non-paragraph mark back in without the spacing.

Clicking on Replace All will yield the following:

“A·vision·from·the·past·becomes·a·
writer’s·deadly·obsession,”·Evelyn·
Chartres.¶

The·Portrait·is·a·Gothic·horror·
about·Victoria·Frost,·an·author·who·
develops·an·unhealthy·obsession·for·
her·character·As·events·unfold,·
her·obsession·turns·on·her·forcing·
the·author·to·question·her·sanity.·
Is·this·simply·insanity·or·are·there·
other·factors·in·play?¶

The·Portrait·is·a·mixture·of·
contemporary·and·historical·pieces·
with·the·latter·revolving·around·
her·character·and·muse.·In·this·
novel,·the·author·will·revisit·an·
iconic·scene·using·both·prose·and·
art·yielding·new·pieces·to·the·
puzzle.¶

And you are done! Single-spacing between sentences is a simpler process that requires less steps.

Summary

Follow these steps below to normalise your manuscript for single-spacing after a sentence. All of these are done from the Find and Replace window.

Replace tabulations

Find what: ^t

Replace with: ·

Wildcards: No

Replace non-breaking spaces

Find what: ^s

Replace with: ·

Wildcards: No

Spacing within paragraphs

Find what: ([.\!\?””;,…])·{2,}

Replace with: \1·

Wildcards: Yes

Spacing at end of paragraph

Find what: ·{1,}(^13)

Replace with: \1

Wildcards: Yes

Spacing at start of paragraph

Find what: (^13)·{1,}([!^13])

Replace with: \1\2

Wildcards: Yes

Note

Spaces are shown below using the (·) formatting character for clarity. Make sure you use a proper space instead when looking over the screenshots.

Normalising Your Manuscript Using Microsoft Word

7 February 2016 by Evelyn Chartres 1 Comment

The Find and Replace capabilities within Microsoft Word are impressive. However, the interface is not always intuitive and some of features can conflict with others. Once aware of these limitations, we can use this capability to perform a series of tasks quickly and efficiently.

This tutorial will reference the same text throughout. A sample is available through Google Docs. Set Microsoft Word to display formatting to get a view similar to the one below

“A·vision·from·the·past·becomes·a·
writer’s·deadly·obsession,”·Evelyn·
Chartres.¶

The·Portrait·is·a·Gothic·horror·
about·Victoria·Frost,·an·author·who·
develops·an·unhealthy·obsession·for·
her·character.··As·events·unfold,·
her·obsession·turns·on·her·forcing·
the·author·to·question·her·sanity.···
Is·this·simply·insanity·or·are·there·
other·factors·in·play?···¶

·The·Portrait·is·a·mixture·of·
contemporary·and·historical·pieces·
with·the·latter·revolving·around·
her·character·and·muse.····In·this·
novel,·→the·author·will·revisit·an·
iconic·scene·using·both·prose·and·
art·yielding·new·pieces·to·the·
puzzle.¶

Normalizing your Manuscript

In other situations, people will either single-space or double-space at the end of a sentence. While a single author may be diligent in applying their preference, this type of diligence is hard to enforce in collaborative works.

In the sample text, we have instances of tabulations and varied spacing. Using the Find and Replace capability, we will normalize spacing using a series of steps.

Note: Spaces ( ) have been replaced with an underscores (_) for clarity in the text. Screen captures will were taken with valid input.

Replacing all Tabulations

Note: This portion assumes that you are not using tabulations as a legitimate formatting option. If you do use tabulations then select the area you wish to cleanse prior to using Find and Replace.

Replacing all tabulations should be your first step, since this reduces the number of steps. From the Home Ribbon, click on Replace as which will pop-up the Find and Replace window.

Click in the Find what text-box to make ensure the cursor placed there. Next, click on Special and select Tabulation from the pop-up.

This inserts ^t and tells Microsoft Word to search for tabulations. Alternatively you could simply type in ^t yourself, saving a few clicks.

Place a single space (_) within the Replace with textbox which replaces all tabulations with a space. When satisfied, click on Replace All.

Since there was one (1) tabulation within our sample, you should get the same results as below.

The document should look as follows with formatting in place.

“A·vision·from·the·past·becomes·a·
writer’s·deadly·obsession,”·Evelyn·
Chartres.¶

The·Portrait·is·a·Gothic·horror·
about·Victoria·Frost,·an·author·who·
develops·an·unhealthy·obsession·for·
her·character.··As·events·unfold,·
her·obsession·turns·on·her·forcing·
the·author·to·question·her·sanity.···
Is·this·simply·insanity·or·are·there·
other·factors·in·play?···¶

·The·Portrait·is·a·mixture·of·
contemporary·and·historical·pieces·
with·the·latter·revolving·around·
her·character·and·muse.····In·this·
novel,··the·author·will·revisit·an·
iconic·scene·using·both·prose·and·
art·yielding·new·pieces·to·the·
puzzle.¶

Occasionally documents contain more than a combination of spaces and tabulations. Some manuscripts may contain non-breaking spaces, a type of space that does not permit the word processor to break to the following line. Instead, words connected by a non-breaking space will stay together as though part of a larger word.

Instead of selecting the Tab character option, use the White space selection instead. The special character set is ^w and will match all types of white space within a document.

Note: Replacing all types of spacing to a normal format is time intensive. For a large manuscript you can expect it to take minutes!

Confirming Spacing after a Comma

For this step, we make use of wildcards, so from the Find and Replace window check the Use wildcards option. Wildcards are incapable of using special characters that were used in previous sections, so the Special button displays a new set of features.

Attempts to use special characters will result in the following error.

Insert ([;,])_{2,} into the Find what text-box and \1_ into the Replace with text-box.

This is cryptic at a first glance, so time to break it down.

[;,]

This portion provides a list of characters to start off our match within the search. In this case the coma and semi-colon are searched for. Once found, search will attempt to match the rest of the sequence.

()

Anything within a parenthesis may be referenced in the Replace with text-box.

_{2,}

Find instances of at least two (2) spaces to make a match. We set this at two (2) to cover instances which deviate.

\1_

Replaces the matching text with whatever character was matched followed by a single space.

Click on Replace All to look for instances where there are too many spaces after a comma or semi-colon. Our sample will yield one (1) result with the document looking as follows with formatting in place:

“A·vision·from·the·past·becomes·a·
writer’s·deadly·obsession,”·Evelyn·
Chartres.¶

The·Portrait·is·a·Gothic·horror·
about·Victoria·Frost,·an·author·who·
develops·an·unhealthy·obsession·for·
her·character.··As·events·unfold,·
her·obsession·turns·on·her·forcing·
the·author·to·question·her·sanity.···
Is·this·simply·insanity·or·are·there·
other·factors·in·play?···¶

·The·Portrait·is·a·mixture·of·
contemporary·and·historical·pieces·
with·the·latter·revolving·around·
her·character·and·muse.····In·this·
novel,·the·author·will·revisit·an·
iconic·scene·using·both·prose·and·
art·yielding·new·pieces·to·thie·
puzzle.¶

Confirming Spacing after a Sentence

This tutorial assumes that double-spacing is used after a sentence, to proceed insert ([.\!\?””…])_{1,} into the Find what text-box then place \1__ into the Replace with text-box.

Again, this may seem confusing, so let us break it down to explain.

[.\!\?”"…]

Provides a list of characters to begin our match criteria. In this case, the period, exclamation point, question mark and end quotes are searched for. The backslashes force search to treat preceding it characters literally. i.e. the exclamation point and question mark are special characters.

()

Anything within a parenthesis may be referenced in the Replace with text-box, in this case it would be \1.

_{1,}

Find instances of at least one (1) spaces to make a match.

\1__

Replaces the matching text with whatever character was matched followed by a double space.

Click on Replace All to normalize spacing at the end of a sentence. Our sample yields several results with the document looking as follows with formatting in place:

“A·vision·from·the·past·becomes·a·
writer’s·deadly·obsession,”··Evelyn·
Chartres.¶

The·Portrait·is·a·Gothic·horror·
about·Victoria·Frost,·an·author·who·
develops·an·unhealthy·obsession·for·
her·character.··As·events·unfold,·
her·obsession·turns·on·her·forcing·
the·author·to·question·her·sanity.··
Is·this·simply·insanity·or·are·there·
other·factors·in·play?···¶

·The·Portrait·is·a·mixture·of·
contemporary·and·historical·pieces·
with·the·latter·revolving·around·
her·character·and·muse.··In·this·
novel,·the·author·will·revisit·an·
iconic·scene·using·both·prose·and·
art·yielding·new·pieces·to·ths·
puzzle.¶

Looking for Dialogue Transitions

If you have instances in the manuscript where a comma is followed by a quote, then you need to run with the following in Find what, (,[“”])_{2,} and \1_ Replace with.

Note: Microsoft Word will not match smart quotes when a double quotes are provided in the Find what field, hence why we look for both.

Click on Replace All to correct instances of spacing during a quote transition. Our sample will yield one (1) result with the document looking as follows with formatting in place:

“A·vision·from·the·past·becomes·a·
writer’s·deadly·obsession,”·Evelyn·
Chartres.¶

The·Portrait·is·a·Gothic·horror·
about·Victoria·Frost,·an·author·who·
develops·an·unhealthy·obsession·for·
her·character.··As·events·unfold,·
her·obsession·turns·on·her·forcing·
the·author·to·question·her·sanity.··
Is·this·simply·insanity·or·are·there·
other·factors·in·play?···¶

·The·Portrait·is·a·mixture·of·
contemporary·and·historical·pieces·
with·the·latter·revolving·around·
her·character·and·muse.··In·this·
novel,·the·author·will·revisit·an·
iconic·scene·using·both·prose·and·
art·yielding·new·pieces·to·the·
puzzle.¶

Erroneous Spacing

Erroneous spacing refers to misplaced white space located at either end of a paragraph. The sample we have been working with has an example for both. To correct spacing at the end of a paragraph we insert _{1,}(^13) in Find what and \1 in the Replace with text-boxes.

While this string is simpler than previous entries, I will break it down to explain.

_{1,}

Find instances of at least one (1) spaces to make a match.

(^13)

Special characters used to refer to a paragraph mark. Do not use ^p as this will not work with Wildcards. The parenthesis will preserve the formatting of that specific paragraph mark.

\1

Replaces spaces and the paragraph mark with a paragraph mark.

Clicking on Replace All will yield the following result with formatting:

“A·vision·from·the·past·becomes·a·
writer’s·deadly·obsession,”·Evelyn·
Chartres.¶

The·Portrait·is·a·Gothic·horror·
about·Victoria·Frost,·an·author·who·
develops·an·unhealthy·obsession·for·
her·character.··As·events·unfold,·
her·obsession·turns·on·her·forcing·
the·author·to·question·her·sanity.··
Is·this·simply·insanity·or·are·there·
other·factors·in·play?¶

·The·Portrait·is·a·mixture·of·
contemporary·and·historical·pieces·
with·the·latter·revolving·around·
her·character·and·muse.··In·this·
novel,·the·author·will·revisit·an·
iconic·scene·using·both·prose·and·
art·yielding·new·pieces·to·the·
puzzle.¶

To correct spacing for the beginning of a paragraph insert (^13)_{1,}([!^13]) in Find what then\1\2 in Replace with.

Here is a breakdown of the string.

(^13)

Find an instance of a paragraph mark. The parenthesis means this can be referenced later in Replace with using \1.

_{1,}

Find instances of at least one (1) spaces to make a match.

([!^13])

String will instruct Microsoft Word to match any character that is NOT a paragraph mark. This element will be referenced in Replace with using \2.

\1\2

Drops the paragraph mark and non-paragraph mark back in without the spacing.

Clicking on Replace All will yield the following:

“A·vision·from·the·past·becomes·a·
writer’s·deadly·obsession,”·Evelyn·
Chartres.¶

The·Portrait·is·a·Gothic·horror·
about·Victoria·Frost,·an·author·who·
develops·an·unhealthy·obsession·for·
her·character.··As·events·unfold,·
her·obsession·turns·on·her·forcing·
the·author·to·question·her·sanity.··
Is·this·simply·insanity·or·are·there·
other·factors·in·play?¶

The·Portrait·is·a·mixture·of·
contemporary·and·historical·pieces·
with·the·latter·revolving·around·
her·character·and·muse.··In·this·
novel,·the·author·will·revisit·an·
iconic·scene·using·both·prose·and·
art·yielding·a·new·pieces·to·the·
puzzle.¶

Preparing for Google+ Using Microsoft Word

5 February 2016 by Evelyn Chartres Leave a Comment

The Find and Replace capabilities within Microsoft Word are impressive. However, the interface is not necessarily intuitive and some of features can work against one another. Once aware of these limitations, we can use this capability to perform a series of tasks quickly and efficiently.

Medium-Link — Preparing for Google+ Using Microsoft Word also available on Medium.com

This tutorial will reference the same text throughout. A sample to follow along with is included below:

“A vision from the past becomes a writer’s deadly obsession,” Evelyn Chartres.

The Portrait is a Gothic horror about Victoria Frost, an author who develops an unhealthy obsession for her character. As events unfold, her obsession begins to turn on her forcing the author to question her sanity. Is this simply insanity or are there other factors in play?

The Portrait is a mixture of contemporary and historical pieces with the latter revolving around her character and muse. In this novel, the author will revisit an iconic scene using both prose and art yielding new pieces to the puzzle.

Posting on Google+

Google+ is a social media site, which supports limited formatting when posting. These features however are not selectable through a menu, but interpreted by special characters embedded within the posts. For convenience, three (3) formatting options are shown below.

Italics, _Word_
Bold, *Word*
Strikethrough, -Word-

Say you have a document which has been drafted in WordPress or Microsoft Word with formatting in place. Using the example provided, we can find Italics, Bold and Strikethrough formatted text and replace add in our special characters.

Note: Due to the similarity in methods, only Italics is covered.

From the Home Ribbon, click on Replace as which will pop-up the Find and Replace window.

First, ensure your cursor is in the Find what textbox. In bottom-left corner there is a Format button, click on the Format button then select Font from the pop-up menu.

Note: If you cannot see the Format button, then click on the More > > button. It will expand the window and display additional capabilities.

The Find Font window will appear and provides an extensive search capability. In this situation, we need only select Italic from Font style section. Click OK to proceed.

Repeat the previous two (2) steps, this time ensuring the cursor is in the Replace with textbox. This time select Not Italic from the Font style section.

The image below shows how Find and Replace has been configured to search for Font: Italic and replace with Font: Not Italic. This removes the formatting and prevents it being found in later searches.

To have Google+ see the formatting we need to insert an underscore (_) at either end of the relevant text. Start by typing in two (2) underscores (__) in the Replace with textbox then move your cursor between these characters.

Click on the Special button then select Find What Text as shown below.

This inserts ^& into the Replace with textbox in between the underscores. This sequence of characters references text found during the search.

If necessary, adjust the Replace with textbox to look like the image below. When satisfied, click on Replace All, which brings up the following pop-up.

Click on the OK button, close the Find and Replace window to find the following result:

“A vision from the past becomes a writer’s deadly obsession,” Evelyn Chartres.

The Portrait is a _Gothic horror_ about _Victoria Frost_, an author who develops an unhealthy obsession for her character. As events unfold, her obsession begins to turn on her forcing the author to question her sanity. Is this simply insanity or are there other factors in play?

Repeat the above to replace out Bold *^&* and Strikethrough -^&- fonts. When done, all you need to do is Copy and Paste your text into your Google+ post and you are set!