Broken Paragraphs in MS Word

[LordP]

Sorry, it seems VB stuff is unwanted.

[Quoth]

Define "Broken paragraph"?

For over 20 years I and others have disabled VB in MS Office for security.

Can't this be done with search or search and replace?

[LordP]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Define "Broken paragraph"?

For over 20 years I and others have disabled VB in MS Office for security.

Can't this be done with search or search and replace?

I've done a lot of work in MS Word and I've never disabled VB. I even wrote a 600-page technical manual with it.


A text file that looks like this:

This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it

under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.

[LordP]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Define "Broken paragraph"?

For over 20 years I and others have disabled VB in MS Office for security.

Can't this be done with search or search and replace?

Clearly, you seem to think there might be possible harm in this, so I'm removing everything.

[Quoth]

That text file can be fixed with a regex search and replace. Doesn't need VBA. I've been fixing that for years in Word and now in LO Writer.

I've used word-processing for manuals, project proposals, training materials and novels. MS Word for Windows since about Office 4.3. I've never enabled or needed to use VBA in Word and about twice in Excel in maybe over 25 years (stuff that should have been a program). I used to teach word-processing and DTP as well as programming (real VB6, C++, Modula-2, Forth, SQL etc).

Edit:
If it's a downloaded epub it's also easily fixed in Calibre without export as a docx and re-conversion back to epub.

[roger64]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I've been fixing that for years in Word and now in LO Writer.

Could you please publish your fix for LO Writer?

Thanks in advance.

[Quoth]

If it's an ebook it's easiest to fix in Calibre.

I'm no expert on regex, so I decline to look like an idiot and post the idiotic regexes I use in LO Writer.

I replace all tabs with a space.
I replace multiple spaces with a space.
I replace a space at the start of of a paragraph with nothing.
I replace a space at the end of of a paragraph with nothing.
I replace empty paragraphs with nothing.
I have regexes to find illegal (in English, French is different) space with punctuation.

I have a spreadsheet with list of docs on first column and headings on other columns are regexes to copy/paste. Then I put a checkmark in the column. Other sheets have revision level, status, etc.

Only paragraphs that are headings or certain lists (e.g. contents) should end with no punctuation. Those can be found with a regex.

However if it's a downloaded ebook rather than a source docx/odt, then regex and daip's toolbag (global change HTML tags etc) in Calibre is best.

[Turtle91]

Originally Posted by Quoth

If it's an ebook it's easiest to fix in Calibre.

I'm no expert on regex, so I decline to look like an idiot and post the idiotic regexes I use in LO Writer.

I replace all tabs with a space.
I replace multiple spaces with a space.
I replace a space at the start of of a paragraph with nothing.
I replace a space at the end of of a paragraph with nothing.
I replace empty paragraphs with nothing.
I have regexes to find illegal (in English, French is different) space with punctuation.

I have a spreadsheet with list of docs on first column and headings on other columns are regexes to copy/paste. Then I put a checkmark in the column. Other sheets have revision level, status, etc.

Only paragraphs that are headings or certain lists (e.g. contents) should end with no punctuation. Those can be found with a regex.

However if it's a downloaded ebook rather than a source docx/odt, then regex and daip's toolbag (global change HTML tags etc) in Calibre is best.

Nothing beats a workflow that you already have setup!


However, if you haven't set it up in Calibre yet, you can use Sigil's "Mend and Prettify" function to do the first 4 (not positive about the tab??) of those steps with a click of the mouse. Then you can add as many more regexes as you wish to a Saved Searches group to do them all with another click.


The only extra step is having to save your document as an html file before importing to Sigil...but you have to do that anyway to make an ePub.