If I have vertical text like this:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7


8


...and I want to back space every line onto the previous line throughout the whole document, so that it would look like this:

12
34
56
78


...how would I do it?

Youy could use a wildcard Find/Replace, where:
Find = ([0-9]{1,})[^13^l]([0-9]{1,}[^13^l])
Replace = \1\2
or:
Find = ([!^13]{1,})[^13^l]([!^13]{1,}[^13^l])
Replace = \1\2

The first one will work only on lines/paragraphs containing numbers; the second with any content.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

hey, thanks for the help, but the second formula you gave me, which is what I need since I'm not just working with numbers, is only working like this:

1
2
34
5

1
2
34
5

...as you can see, it's only working on every fourth line. Any advice?

I tested both Find/Replace expressions before posting. For content as depicted in your posts they both work.

Do note that extraneous empty lines between the numbers will throw things off; so too will having the insertion point (selection cursor) anywhere within the numbered range.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

This is specifically what I need to do:
I have mostly four-line text blocks separated by space throughout thousands of pages like this:

1
2
3
4

1
2
3
4

1
2
3
4

...and I need to make every text block look like this:

1234

1234

1234

I basically need to move the bottom three lines onto the first line in every text block, and I don't care if the space is removed afterwards, so that it looks like this:

1234
1234
1234

...How can I do this?

The Find/Replace expression I provided will already do that. Running it once converts:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
to:
12
34
56
78
Running it a second time will give you:
1234
5678
It won't remove extraneous lines between individual numbers or groups of numbers, though.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

It doesn't do that. It does what I stated earlier:

1
2
34

1
2
34

...And if I keep running it, it eventually just tells me 0 replacements were made, yet there's still 3 lines of text in every text block when there should only be one.

Kindly don't contradict me. It does precisely what I said it does for data as you described. If it's not working for you it's because your data are not as described.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

What potential things in my document would cause it to not work?

Edit: I apologize. It turns out that I just needed to remove all the formatting from the document, and now it works. Thanks a lot.

This really has nothing to do with formatting. As I have already indicated:
For the first Find/Replace expression I posted, so to would any extraneous non-numeric content (e.g. tabs, spaces, letters).

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]