weird type of space between words - how toremove with find and replace?

[DennisonBerwick]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

After importing a text document from an OCR, every line has a space between two words that is not a regular space (ie. revealed by a dot).

The space behaves normally within a line but forces lines to break early.

This space is not revealed by selecting "show non-printing characters".

If I copy the space and paste into Find, Find merely skips the space and finds the next paragraph mark.

What type of space is this?
How can I make it reveal itself (it did once and I was able to find and replace with a regular space, but can't remember how I did it).
How can I remove this weird space from a book-length document?

Thanks.

 

[Clive Huggan]

Hello Dennison,

Sounds to me like a non-breaking space, which my OCR application sometimes
sprays around the place, although some of the comments you have made are not
consistent with all the characteristics I see. But I'm in Word 2004; maybe
Microsoft has changed some in Word 2008. If you paste a non-breaking space
into the Find and Replace window it just shows as an ordinary space, though,
as you have found. It should, however, show a horizontal graphic above the
dot when "show non-printing characters" is enabled.

Assuming it is a non-breaking space, open Word's "Find and replace" window.
Make sure the triangle (at bottom left in Word 2004; probably there in 2008)
is set to expand the bottom of the window.

Pop the "Special" pop-down menu to "Nonbreaking space" or type "^s" in the
top field.

Put a space in the "Replace with" field, then click the "Replace all"
button.

I sometimes use non-breaking spaces to kick words over to the next line in a
way that won't upset the pagination the way a line break (i.e.,
Shift-Return) would -- for example, $35[non-breaking space]million. The
keystroke is Option-space.

Seeing you've OCR'd an entire book, you may find some other "minimum
maintenance ideas useful in appendix A of some notes on the way I use Word
for the Mac, titled "Bend Word to Your Will", which are available as a free
download from the Word MVPs' website
(http://word.mvps.org/Mac/Bend/BendWordToYourWill.html).

Post back if thus doesn't work!

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is 5-11 hours different from the Americas and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
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