When we send out our filler articles, they are formatted as little as possible. We do this to make using your articles as simple and carefree as possible. You only need to copy the text you wish to use from the email, and paste it into your own newsletter. You then have all the tools available in your desktop publishing or word processing program to format to your heart’s content.

Occasionally, however, we hear from some subscribers who find that their email programs are inserting hard line breaks at the end of each line in their email. Although this may not seem to be too much of a nuisance, it can cause problems when you are trying to fit an article into a specific space. The line breaks can remain, wreaking havoc with the way your article fills the space.

One of our subscribers, Bill Frankton, recently shared with us this handy tip for removing the end-of-line breaks quickly. He writes:

“Immediately after copying and pasting the text, I highlight the entire thing. I then use the “Find and Replace” command. The line breaks actually show up as a paragraph break. In the “Find” section, you have to type in ^p. In the “Replace” section, type in one space. Then hit the button that says “Replace.” Do not use “Replace All” since this will replace even those that you want to keep. Go through the entire text and get rid of all of those extra line breaks.”

We would like to add to Bill’s comments. Some programs such as Word give you an option in the “Find” box, letting you chose from a list of special characters. Simply chose “Paragraph Break” and again type one space in the “Replace” field.

Thanks, Bill for that tip! If you have encountered this problem when using your articles, we’d love to hear from you. Please tell us the type of email program you are using, and whether this tip has helped you out. We are always looking for ways to make using our service easier and faster!