Copy and paste without inserting tabs already present

[FFSteve]

How can I copy data in Word that has tabs embedded between it, and paste it
and have the tabs eliminated leaving the words and numbers alone? I copied
some data from excel from multiple columns and tabs were inserted between the
data even though I used paste special as test without formatting. So when I
try again copying the data, in just word alone, if it there are tabs present,
they are left in when pasting. This is a problem because the data when
pasted into another program inserts 4 spaces for every tab present and I only
want one space or 1 tab alone.

 

[Doug Robbins]

The tabs are caused by the columns in Excel. In Word, use Edit replace to
replace ^t with a space.

--
Please respond to the Newsgroup for the benefit of others who may be
interested. Questions sent directly to me will only be answered on a paid
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Hope this helps,
Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[FFSteve]

Thanks for promptly replying. I realize that the colums in excell made the
tabs. When I click on the show/hide paragraph symbol in the toolbar of word,
I can see there is a tab represented by a right pointing arrow.

The problem is there is too much data to manually edit out each tab and
replace it with a space. That is what I am trying to do. Copy the data only
somehow without the tabs. It seems like it should be possible. Thanks

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You have misunderstood what Doug was telling you. You use Find and Replace
for this task:

1. Press Ctrl+H to open the dialog.

2. In the "Find what" box, type ^t (which is Word's code for a tab
character).

3. In the "Replace with" box, press the Spacebar once.

4. Click Replace All.

 

[FFSteve]

Thanks for spelling it out to me Suz. I didn't know that ^t was the code for
a tab and I hadn't recognized he meant replace them all at once, as I mistook
it for one at a time. But yes it will work and I had not thought of this.
Thanks to both of you.