In Textpad (a text editor I use), if all text in a paragraph is offset
to the right by, let's say 3 spaces, I can delete the entire offset
all at once by selecting a vertical block containing the excess
spaces, and pressing Delete. Is it possible to do this in MS Word?

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Clarification of Question by rob123-ga on 24 Jun 2003 18:18 PDT

And other manipulations of text blocks. In Textpad, if you select a
block starting at the right margin, even if only a single column wide,
pressing Tab offsets every line selected one tab space. Or if you
highlight a block of text and select Fill Block on the Edit menu, the
space is filled with the character of your choice, and the text is
offset to the right. Would be great if I could do this in Word!

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Request for Question Clarification by efn-ga on 24 Jun 2003 18:49 PDT

The features available or the way to use them may vary in different
versions of Word.  Which version is of interest to you?

--efn

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Clarification of Question by rob123-ga on 26 Jun 2003 16:16 PDT

Hello efn and others. I am using Office XP. All of you have given me
useful information, and I am happy with your answers. KingDave notes
that Word does do block select. It can also format just selected text,
but the highlight does not persist, so you must reselect for each
sequential format change. Read2Live and 2-be-determined were very
helpful in suggesting the Find command, expecially the "Hilight all
items check box, which I had not seen. I still do not see a way to
emulate the block indent, at least on a list, rather than a paragraph.

Can I award the answer to more than one person?

rob123,

I would be interested in GA's answer.  Assuming we are using Word
2000/XP, I don't see how Word natively supports what TextPad's called
Block Select.  Though I suspect it is doable with VBA code.  However,
it is possible to simulate your first example with the Find function,
i.e., Ctrl-F.  In the Find what box, put in 3 white spaces, i.e., "  
" (without quotes).  Check the Hightlight all items found in and
select Main Document (or whatever fits your needs).  Click Find All. 
Now you should see the 3 columns of all lines are highlighted.  You
can now hit Delete to remove them.

I think you'll find Find and Replace (Edit >> Replace) nearer what you
are looking for.

If you are manipulating a text document it's no problem (I frequently
do this when re-formating forwarded forwarded emails with those
irritating >> markers.

You will find a number of advanced options if you click on Special.

What you may not be able to do is to do your editting just in one
selected block of text - although you can choose to go UP from the
cursor point, or DOWN from the cursor point, or to select ALL of the
document.  You can get by this by cutting the selected text, pasting
it into a new document, replacing as you want in that text , then
cutting and pasting it back into the original document.  Always a good
idea to Save your work before making any changes, and also getting to
learn and love the [Control+Z] (=undo) feature.

If this answers your needs, I'll be happy to post this as an answer.

Best, r2l

I know exactly what you're doing because I do the same in an antique
text editor called Simon from Clockwork Software. It also has a very
useful screen grabbing feature that works in exactly the same way.

When I do similar things in Word, I do exactly what researchers have
already suggested and use the global search and replace tool.

If I have instances of three spaces (or whatever) elsewhere and don't
want them deleting, I'll usually create a macro to delete whatever
needs deleting and then move onto the next line. If it's a really long
document I'll go back into the macro and add a FOR X=1 TO Y / NEXT X
loop.

Poe

It is possible, although it is not as powerful as in Textpad. To
select a block of text, put your cursor where you want the block to
begin, hold ALT, and then click and drag over the block. You can use
this to delete or copy the text, but it does not seem to be able to
insert text as Textpad does.

This is the functionality in Office 2000. I will have to wait until I
get home to test Word XP.

Dave

Unfortunately, Google Answers does not support more than one
researcher's answer to a question.  If a researcher posts an answer
and you want to recognize and reward another researcher's
contributions, you can post another question specifically for that
purpose.  If you post a question with a subject like "For read2live-ga
only," other researchers will generally leave it alone.  (You will
have to pay for the second question, of course.)