How do I convert MSWord formatting to Libre-ODT formatting

I often import MSWord and material from web pages into ODT documents using LibreOffice-Writer.
Most of the time, each line of a paragraph has a line-feed as opposed to simply letting the paragraph wrap to the next line. In some documents, which may contain a list of one-line entries which should each be a paragraph, they instead, insert a line-feed. In a document more than just a few lines, it is a colossal pain to tediously and meticulously edit each line to either be a paragraph or wrap by removing the line-feeds.
In MSWord, it was possible to enter find-and-replace "codes [e.g. ^l=line feed; ^p=paragraph; ^t=tab] to do this for an entire document in one operation.

Can this be done in LibreOffice-Writer??

I found that it can, but seems to be restricted to “line-feed” converting to “paragraph”. I haven’t found what “wild-cards” to enter for things like “paragraph”(¶), “tab”; “page-break” or any other formatting control characters

Is it in the document??

Yes, at least the “line-feed” [search for “\n” replace with “\n” will change “line-feed” to a "paragraph “¶”];

Is there a newer version of the Writer document??

You need to use regular expressions. On the Search and Replace dialogue open the “more options” button and select “Regular expressions”

Paragraph end is searched with a $ on the search box, but you need to use \n on the replace box to insert one.

You can search for tabs with \t

Line feeds are searched with \n (yes, I know it is confusing :wink: )

Etcetera.

The following page was originally written for AOO, but RegExp work the same way on LibO: Introduction to Regular Expressions

You may also try with the AltSearch extension.