I’m replacing typewriter quotes with “actual” quotation marks. The quotation spans several Bible verses which are separated by blank lines. When I try to replace the typewriter quotes, all the relevant lines are listed, but I can only select one line instead of all of them. I’ve made do by Running all the lines together into one massive paragraph, changing the quotes, then restoring the line spacing. Is there an easier way?
What do you call “blank lines”? Are they empty paragraphs?
Built-in Find & Replace can only operate on a single paragraph contents. Therefore if your quotations straddle paragraph marks, built-in F&R can’t do the job.
You can have a try at AltSearch extension which no such limitation.
Another approach is to handle opening and closing quotes separately. I assume that what you call *typewriter quotes" are U+0022 QUOTATION MARK " and you want to replace them with curly quotes (various shapes at top or bottom).
An “opening quote” is a sequence space-quote while a “closing quote” is quote-space. In the former case, the space may also be start_of_paragraph. Assuming you’re an American writer (where usage puts quotes after punctuation), the latter case can also be quote-end_of_paragraph.
So, this can be done in 4 passes with built-in F&R.
PS: to get best help, always mention OS name, exact LO version and save format.