Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Replacing Multiple Spaces with Tabs.
You may receive a document from someone that uses multiple spaces to separate items on a line. This is typically done when a person wants to format tabular material, and separates columns using spaces. You can find this quite a bit in information downloaded from the Web.
If you are starting with a source document in this condition, you may be wondering how you can replace all the consecutive spaces with a single tab character. It is possible to go through multiple search-and-replace operations to achieve the desired goal, but there is a quicker way. You can replace any number of consecutive spaces with a single tab character by following these steps:
Figure 1. The Replace tab of the Find and Replace dialog box.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (851) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Replacing Multiple Spaces with Tabs.
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2019-10-18 16:57:55
Mark Hamilton
OMG! Thank you so much! This is so helpful. I have been looking for this type of tool or trick, what have you, for so long. It was not until today that I figured out how to phrase what I wanted as a search. This will greatly assist my work. Thank you for publishing this.
--Mark
2018-08-13 20:14:05
I have a question concerning whether the following problem can be solved using Word 2016. I have a large document with scattered lines throughout formatted like this:
tab1 tab2 ...tabm x1 x2 ... xj tab1 tab2...tabn x1 x2...xk .
Each line begins with 'm' tabs, followed immediately by arbitrary text of length 'j', followed immediately by 'n' tabs, followed immediately by arbitrary text of length 'k'. The latter text (the text of length 'k') wraps around to the next line (in its entirety) on each formatted line. The parameters m,n,j ,k vary from one formatted line to the next. No line in the document begins with a tab other than lines formatted as above.
The problem is this: For a given character size and page width, reduce the number of tabs on each line so that (1) the text 'x1x2...xk' does not wrap around, (2) the number of tabs appearing at the beginning of the line (i.e., m ) differs from the latter number (i.e., n) as follows: either n=m or 0<m-n<2, and (3) the total number of tabs is maximal, meaning n+m cannot be increased without wraparound occurring. Any suggestions?
2015-02-06 02:20:53
Dhinesh
Thanks for your information.working good
2014-11-02 10:54:01
kirill
oops, does not work, not for mac, at least :(
2013-09-09 08:15:07
Richard Laycock
Very helpful. I should have looked this up years ago.
BTW, I would have subscribed but your site failed to let me "Fields were missing..." I imagine you're scanning for personal info or setting ad links my Hosts file disables. If you weren't so snoopy my subscription would have worked. You should reconsider your privacy policies.
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: 
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