remove space before paragraph break

[JonathanArias]

Hi,

what is the find and replace way  to remove a space before a paragraph space?

Like when this happens:

Thank you

[Bill Silbert]

In the Find field type a space and ^p. In the Change field just type ^p.

[Jongware]

There have been reports that replacing returns in the regular text Find/Change may mess with applied paragraph styles – the return gets "removed", pastring paragraphs temporarily together, and then it gets reinserted in the Change To.

Is that solved in recent InDesigns?

[Laubender]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/%5BJongware%5D  wrote

There have been reports that replacing returns in the regular text Find/Change may mess with applied paragraph styles – the return gets "removed", pastring paragraphs temporarily together, and then it gets reinserted in the Change To.

Is that solved in recent InDesigns?

Hi Jongware,

it's not resolved. Did a simple test with CC 2018.

Before find/change:

Result:

So it's better to do something like that with a GREP find/change using a positive lookahead.

Before:

After:

Regards,
Uwe

[Jongware]

Thanks for checking – yes, that is exactly what I meant!

I guess this is just something that cannot be fixed due to how "Find/Change" internally works.

(For those wondering why then that GREP solution is able to do it: it looks at but does not change the hard return, so the paragraphs never get stuck together. Of course the same solution could be transferred to the Plain Text Find/Change, but then it would also use GREP syntax. And we already have that option. Rule of thumb: the regular Find/Change is totally fine for all simple changes, but for more go to GREP.)

[Laubender]

FWIW:

My solution is only looking at one single instance of a blank character before the end of a end of paragraph character.

Not very flexible, but exactly the thing Jonathan was asking…

It could be better to expand that to a more universal pattern if you want to catch multiple whitespaces before the end of a paragraph character or the end of a story.

For all horizontal whitespaces:

\h+$

And replace with nothing.

Why do I not use:

\s+$

like Barb is suggesting in answer #2 ?

Because I do not want to get rid of any end of paragraph characters in this case.

Regards,
Uwe

[Barb Binder]

Or use the InDesign-provided GREP query—remove trailing whitespace. Preferable to me because it also picks up multiple spaces at the end, and extra ¶s.

\s+ (any white space, one or more)

$ (at the end of a paragraph)

~Barb

[AnneMarie Concepcion · Accepted solution]

Removing those spaces is one of the 10 different Find/Change greps done by the free script bundled with InDesign, Find/Change By List. (Window > Utilities > Scripts). Faster than a speeding bullet!

by List

[JonathanArias]

I believe i remember this one from you word to indesign workflow training in lynda.com.

I love your videos.

[AnneMarie Concepcion]

Thank you!

Adobe fixed the FindChangeBuyList.txt file in CC2018, it no longer messes up paragraphs styles.

AM

[JonathanArias]

ahh.. ok. thats great. you will be at Creative Pro correct?

[AnneMarie Concepcion]

Do you mean the CreativeProWeek.com conference in June? Yes I will, it's my conference! 🙂 I hope you will be, too?

--AM

[JonathanArias]

Yes, I am attending.. looking forward to meeting some  the people who have given me so much training

[JonathanArias]

is there a video tutorial that explains what each of those scripts is for? that name for it does not describe what it does.

[Mike Witherell]

I rewrote the Find / Change by List so that it doesn't disturb paragraph styles:

Mike's Find/Change By List 2017​

You can download it for free from my resources page.

[JonathanArias]

got it!

[JonathanArias]

just ran it on a 72 page document. nice!!!