When I import text files the automatic word wrap enters a carriage return properly at the end of the text line but also at the end of the sentence. This puts multiple improper carriage returns in the file. Only way to minimize the effect is to expand the line width to maximum. Format/Wrap function is greyed out. No help in help.
You have tagged this Word. Do you mean Writer? You say common, do you mean Calc? Or Impress?
Is it a file you have exported as text and are importing into something else? Or a file you are importing into Writer or Calc, etc.
BTW Wrapping text doesn’t insert a carriage return. In Writer, Format > Wrap is to wrap text around an object, not to wrap text which happens automatically.
@wmrhoward, Format - Wrap function is to define for objects (images, shapes, etc.) how the interaction of text is with them.
The line break (carriage return) symbol (activate menu View - Formatting Marks) is similar to the symbol printed on the Enter key. The end of paragraph symbol is ¶. It can be a single paragraph with many line breaks.
You can click edit below your question and use the paper clip to upload a sample file (remove all sensible data before).
Click ctrl +f10 do you see a backwords p? That is a paragraph break. So if you are importing a document from Microsoft Word that might be the problem, I am just guessing here.
If this helps then please tick the answer (
) …and/or show you like it with an uptick (∧)
If we are guessing, then my scenario is that you have imported into Writer some .txt. Each sentence ends in a paragraph break ¶ and each paragraph ends in two breaks ¶
¶
Then the next sentence starts.
You want each sentence to be followed by a space before the next sentence starts and each paragraph to end with a single paragraph break.
Find & Replace (Ctrl+H) using Regular Expressions is the tool. We have to do it in sequence:
- Find the empty paragraph and replace it with a character not found in the text, I use Å (Alt+0197, or U+00c5) because it is not far from the symbol for ¾ (Alt+0190) in Windows. Tick the box that says Regular Expressions, tick current selection if you are working on a selection. In the Find box enter
^$, in the Replace box enterÅ, click Replace all - Now we can replace all the remaining paragraph breaks with spaces. In the Find box enter
$, in the Replace box enter a space from the keyboard - Replace our temporary character with with a return. In the Find box enter
Å, in the Replace box enter\n, click Replace All
Good luck. Cheers, Ål
Edit 01:18 UTC
Second guess: You have opened a pdf in Draw and are copying text but it all comes in as individual lines?
You need a a fairly up-to-date version of Draw for this, it certainly works for 6.4.7.
In Draw select your block of text by drag-selecting. In the menu click Shape > Consolidate text. Select the consolidated text (not the frame) with your cursor, copy (Ctrl+C) and paste it into Writer.
@EarnestAl, Draw has no Wrap item in the Format menu. By a moment I thinked about Calc with text in cells, but also no Wrap item.
@LeroyG My first comment was because I couldn’t work out whether the text files were exported/copied from an LO application (Calc, Impress, etc) in such a way that his importing application (non-LO? Word?) was not handling them well - common and Word tags. Or whether the Word tag meant Writer and he was importing into that, but then what was common for?
On reflection, I think my second guess is most likely, copying from pdf in Draw and pasting into Writer. You will get paragraph breaks in the middle of sentences as each line is a text block. The solution is the easiest to implement if it is the case.
Without any further input from OP it is all guesswork.