I'm editing a manuscript in the most recent version of Word. The author used 5 consecutive spaces instead of Tabs. I need to go through 300 pages to replace these. How do I do a Search and Replace for 5 consecutive spaces to be replaced with a tab?

When I use Whitespace search and replace with Tabs, it does everything, even spaces in between words. I need to be able to quantify the string of 5 spaces only.

• Moved by Youjun Tang Monday, February 09, 2015 3:22 AM more related to suggestion forum

Jasmine,

If you want to get very specific, below is an advance Find/Replace option for you to try:

Select both the "Use wildcards" and "Ignore white-space characters" boxes.

Then type the following criteria for Find:

^32{5,}

Type the following criteria for Replace:

^09

The ^32 is a "space character" and ^09 represents a "tab character".

Good luck!

-Greg