Say I create a document (a song lyric) and all the lines are font size 16 pt and I want to change any blank lines between verses to be 6 pt. Can I use find/replace and, if so, how? I do use find/replace quite a lot but I can’t figure out how to tell it I want this change to be only for blank lines between verses. A verse contains several lines.
Hi,
instead of “blank lines” between verses use paragraphs and spacing below. Probably alter an existing paragraph style or add a new paragraph style. This is a “clean” solution.
Direct formatting with character styles (more a quick and dirty workaround)
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Create a new character style (here: 6p)
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To find blank lines (line feed ↲ but not carriage return ¶) you may search (Regular Expressions) \n\n and find a pair of ↲ - they have the same size first. Search all to find each double blank line.
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(You may close or not the SEARCH&REPLACE tool.) Double click on character style 6p. The blank line gets a hight of 6p, the line before does not - because only the trailing ↲ is formatted but not the other characters.
See attached screenshot:
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I am a songwriter, these are lyric documents and I do this regularly. Seems to me that there has to be a hard return at end of each line. Else, how would I start a new line? Between song sections, there is a blank line to give it some space so that you can tell where each verse/chorus/bridge starts and stops. Most often, four lines per verse or chorus. But that can vary. Does what I just wrote change your response? I will read your response and try to understand. Thank you for your detailed post.
Toggle Formatting Marks - CTRL+F10
I come back to my first proposal: Use of paragraph styles.
Here: Built-in paragraph style Body Text.
As you may see on the screenshot the single text containing lines (rhymes) get their ends with Line Feeds ↲ - SHIFT + ENTER.
At the end of a stanza use ¶ - ENTER.
The in-built paragraph style Body Text has got following values (Indents & Spacing):
- Below Paragraph 0,25 cm
- Line Spacing: 1.15 lines (1,15 lines)
Right click on Body Text style and choose Edit Style for displaying its values or altering them. (Both properties can be altered; other ones as well).
For illustration a screenshot, HTH:
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