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Old 02-15-2023, 09:13 PM
BillMcEnaney BillMcEnaney is offline Removing extra space between word Mac OS X Removing extra space between word Office 2011 for Mac
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Hi, everyone,

I'm revising a Word document my coworker Dominique created from a PDF document containing images scanned from an old printed book. So each PDF page is full letter images instead of OCR scanned characters. Now, in the Word document in .docx format, two or more spaces separate most words. Is there an automatic way to make Word 2019 delete the extra spaces?

Since the forum's server will correct the spacing if I try to show you some sample text, what should I do to show you a part of the Word document when that document is likely too big to attach to this post.

Find/Replace tried said it removed thousands of extra spaces. But most words still stayed too far apart.

Thanks for your help.
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Old 02-16-2023, 01:30 AM
JeremyMarto JeremyMarto is offline Removing extra space between word Windows 10 Removing extra space between word Office 2021
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If two or more spaces - that is, the number of spaces varies - I assume you need to replace 'space space' with 'space' repeatedly until there is only a single space everywhere.

If that doesn't work, please say what does happen after that process.
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Old 02-16-2023, 04:01 PM
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Guessed Guessed is offline Removing extra space between word Windows 10 Removing extra space between word Office 2016
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When you convert a PDF into an editable Word document, the conversion is often full of strange formatting because the 'text flow' is complicated by the need to replicate the 'layout' of the converted text. Sometimes it is worth trying different methods to convert the PDF because some conversions do a better job than others - this depends heavily on the layouts being converted.

It may be as simple as doing the find/replace as suggested by JeremyMarto or perhaps you need to flatten a number of floating text boxes.

Can you post a sample DOCX file to show what exactly you are looking at once the PDF has been converted?
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Old 02-16-2023, 06:06 PM
BillMcEnaney BillMcEnaney is offline Removing extra space between word Mac OS X Removing extra space between word Office 2011 for Mac
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JeremyMarto View Post
If two or more spaces - that is, the number of spaces varies - I assume you need to replace 'space space' with 'space' repeatedly until there is only a single space everywhere.

If that doesn't work, please say what does happen after that process.
Mr. Marto and others,

Please forgive me for this delayed reply because something went wrong when I wrote one earlier today. I usually pride myself on prompt replies.

In the Word document, most words stay far apart,looking as though more than two spaces separate them. I put the cursor between words, press the "Delete" or "Backspace" key only once, and watch the gap close. So then the words touch each other.

Since I programmed computers professionally, I'm familiar with the ASCII character set, control characters, and other things like that. But my computer stumps me when one backspace keystroke seems to remove three or four consecutive space characters.

Last edited by BillMcEnaney; 02-16-2023 at 06:07 PM. Reason: I omitted a word.
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Old 02-16-2023, 06:35 PM
Charles Kenyon Charles Kenyon is offline Removing extra space between word Windows 11 Removing extra space between word Office 2021
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Try copying your text and pasting, perhaps into a new document, as plain text.
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Old 02-16-2023, 06:36 PM
BillMcEnaney BillMcEnaney is offline Removing extra space between word Mac OS X Removing extra space between word Office 2011 for Mac
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Guessed invited me to show you some pages from my Word document. So here they are, my friends.

Since I'm new to Acrobat Pro DC, I sometimes wonder why that program makes my laptop enclose some text in a rectangle. But maybe that behavior will help explain why there's too much whitespace between my document's words. You experts will know what's going wrong, I'm sure.
Attached Files
File Type: docx Sample_Pages.docx (14.8 KB, 4 views)
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Old 02-16-2023, 08:11 PM
Charles Kenyon Charles Kenyon is offline Removing extra space between word Windows 11 Removing extra space between word Office 2021
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Converted documents are always awful to edit. Period.
Here is a temporary link to the document I get when I paste as text only.

The document you attached had text in frames, which is not unusual in conversions from pdf. Each line in the document is actually a separate paragraph. Each is justified expanded to fit too much space.
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Old 02-16-2023, 08:25 PM
Charles Kenyon Charles Kenyon is offline Removing extra space between word Windows 11 Removing extra space between word Office 2021
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I took the original and selected all, then applied left-justification to the text.
Here is a temporary link. This should be easier to edit.

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Old 02-16-2023, 08:39 PM
BillMcEnaney BillMcEnaney is offline Removing extra space between word Mac OS X Removing extra space between word Office 2011 for Mac
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Charles Kenyon View Post
I took the original and selected all, then applied left-justification to the text.
Here is a temporary link. This should be easier to edit.

Dear Mr. Kenyon,

Thank you for your help. It's good to hear from you again because you're always kind to me.

To solve the "frame problem," I'll justify the document or the parts I should justify. Maybe I'll need to tweak page lengths, too, because my boss wants to keep the book's original page numbering.

Maybe someday I'll be an expert in some Microsoft products. Meanwhile, I wish I still programmed on a Unix platform where I feel most confident. It's great to know that you and the others here at the formum understand the problems stumping me.
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Old 02-16-2023, 11:03 PM
BillMcEnaney BillMcEnaney is offline Removing extra space between word Mac OS X Removing extra space between word Office 2011 for Mac
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Mr. Kenyon,

After installing Kutools, it deleted the frames from the Word document.

Bill

Last edited by BillMcEnaney; 02-16-2023 at 11:14 PM. Reason: I answered my question.
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