This can be quite tricky to do well. Over the years ive crafted a macro in the text editer i use (TextPAD), and also created the odd perl script. One such script was used in an email list archive(http://nzpp.virtualave.net/coho/ --its a subroutine in the 'retrieve function' ) to try and clean up the horendous mess you get with a combination of peoples different email clients line break settings.
With the macro i just paste an email body into the editor, run the macro, then paste in into word processor or whatever. However i suggest there are traps to this, because how can you be completely sure that a hard break was original or not? It works best when the original writer knows how to write and format a paragraph!, ie a double line break between paras. In this case you just delete all instances of single newlines (and replace with a space!), but the conflict emerges where there are lists or bullet items INTENDED to have a newline on each line. In that case you get into smart-ass guessing games, like is there a fullstop or other punctuation on the beg or end of the line; does the next line start with a capital letter etc etc. If anyones interested ill gladly send the perl subroutine, such as it is. Peter NZ > What's the proper way to open or import a text file with hard-coded line > breaks (contents reproduced below). I want each group of lines that end > with a blank line to be grouped into a single paragraph. Opening the > file as "Text" produces an Abi document with poem-like breaks (stanzas, > rather than paragraphs, of text). > > ===BEGIN TEXT BLOCK=== > The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick > brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox > jumps over the lazy dog and ends Paragraph 1. > > The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick > brown fox jumps over the lazy dog and ends Paragraph 2. > > The story ends with this sentence and so does Paragraph 3. > ===END TEXT BLOCK=== ----------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word unsubscribe in the message body.
