My skills with Word are not as advanced as I thought they were..

August 14, 2009 7:07 AM

[WordProcessingFilter] I need this document formatted a specific way. Bare with me as I try to explain. I don't want the the text beside the date to wrap under the numbers. If it must wrap, I want it to wrap under the first word of the line before it.

I know I can do this with tables, but I kind of need to do this asap (I stupidly told the client that it would take me less than an hour). If I must do it with tables, is there a way to limit Microsoft Word's Find/Replace tool to say: replace ONLY first space in a paragraph with a tab character?

Is there another way to do it?

Help me hive mind!

posted by royalsong to computers & internet (6 answers total)

Modify Style -> Paragraph -> Hanging Indent -> Pick a size

Done
posted by Mwongozi at 7:16 AM on August 14, 2009

Alternatively, you can do it with the indent sliders on the ruler at the top of the document window (looks like two triangles pointing at each other). Top triangle is the indent; bottom triangle is the hanging indent.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 7:34 AM on August 14, 2009

Okay I did it. Send me a memail of your address and I'll send it to you.

What I did was copied it into excel, converted text to table with a delimited tab after 4 characters (the most common date) and then adjusted the rest to fit. I then copied that back into word.
posted by gagoumot at 8:43 AM on August 14, 2009

In trying to hurry I made a mistake in my explanation and left out a few steps. I'm writing the steps more fully in case others have this question in the future.

I first copied the document into Excel, keeping the source formatting. I then selected "Removed duplicates" to eliminate all the blank rows between the text. Using the Text to Table option in Excel, I used a FIXED WIDTH (not delimited) of 4 characters to separate dates and text, as the most common date was one year. I then manually corrected the other 15 dates and the title (takes all of a minute).

Select All, copy & paste into Word for any other formatting. In this case, I would suggest aligning all the text to Top Left.

I love formatting!
posted by gagoumot at 9:27 AM on August 14, 2009

Thanks Gagoumot, I just did it the old fashioned way with tables in word. But now I know how to do it in excel!

Much appreciated for your attempt!
posted by royalsong at 10:35 AM on August 14, 2009

You really want to look up the hanging indent / first line indent features, as Mwongozi and Haddock mentioned. Random internet tutorial: Microsoft Word: Working with Paragraphs

(scroll down for sections on first-line indents and hanging indents.)
posted by effbot at 11:10 AM on August 14, 2009