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Remove line breaks from PDF text

Text copied from a PDF keeps a hard break at the end of every line, so it lands in your note chopped into pieces. Press Remove line breaks to join the lines back into sentences. Blank lines between paragraphs stay where they are.

Your text stays in this browser tab. WriteKeys never uploads or saves it. How it works

My tools

Make your own buttons. A tool runs its steps in order, like removing every em dash and every $ sign, replacing & with “and”, or inserting “Dx: ” before CHF.

    No tools yet.

    Saved in this browser only, and still here after you close it. Never sent anywhere.

    My words to replace

    When WriteKeys finds a word on the left, it changes it to the word on the right. Useful for words a PDF misreads the same way every time, like ESRO for ESRD.

    Whole words only. Lowercase finds any capitals (esro finds ESRO and Esro). A word typed with capitals matches exactly.

      No words yet. Add one above.

      Saved in this browser only, and still here after you close it. Never sent anywhere. Don't add patient names or anything else that identifies a person.

      Autocomplete

      As you type, WriteKeys suggests words and phrases from this list. Press Tab to use the suggestion, or tap it on a phone. The spell check counts the words on this list as spelled right.

      Press Enter to add. A comma stays part of the phrase. To add several at once, paste a list with one on each line, or press Shift+Enter between them. Suggestions start after you type 2 letters. Tip: select a word in your text before opening this window and it is ready to add.

        No words yet. Add the names, programs, and phrases you type most.

        Saved in this browser only, and still here after you close it. Never sent anywhere. Don't add patient names or anything else that identifies a person.

        Ignored words

        The spell check doesn't mark these words. A word goes on this list when you choose Always ignore in the spell check, or when you add it here. Delete a word to have it marked again.

        Separate several words with spaces. Capitals don't matter: lasix also covers Lasix.

        Saved in this browser

          No words yet. Click a word with a red line and choose Always ignore, or add one above.

          Saved in this browser only, and still here after you close it. Never sent anywhere. Don't save patient names here. For a name, choose Ignore in the spell check: it is forgotten when you close the tab.

          Templates

          Save text you start notes with, like a visit note outline, and put it in the text box with one click. It goes where your cursor is, or fills the box when it is empty. The first 3 on this list also have a button under the text box.

            No templates yet. Type or paste an outline in the text box, then press + New template to save it.

            Saved in this browser only, and still here after you close it. Never sent anywhere. Keep patient details out of templates; fill them in after you insert one.

            Why PDF text breaks at every line

            A PDF records where each line of text sits on the page. It does not record that five of those lines belong to one sentence. When you copy, the end of every line comes along as a real line break, and your note gets the same short lines as the page. Emails that wrap long lines do the same thing.

            What Remove line breaks does

            Before
            Client was seen at home today and
reports no new falls since the last
visit.

Plan: follow up with PCP in two
weeks.
            After: Remove line breaks
            Client was seen at home today and reports no new falls since the last visit.

Plan: follow up with PCP in two weeks.
            • Lines inside a paragraph are joined with a single space.
            • A blank line marks a new paragraph, and it is kept. To put everything in one paragraph, press the button a second time.
            • Spaces at the start and end of each line are removed.
            • A word that ends a line with a hyphen is joined to the next line without a space, and the hyphen stays.
            Before
            Needs follow-
up with PCP and self-
care teaching.
            After: Remove line breaks
            Needs follow-up with PCP and self-care teaching.

            Why keep the hyphen? WriteKeys can't tell a word the PDF split in two (manage-ment) from a real hyphenated word (follow-up). Case notes are full of the second kind: follow-up, self-care, short-term, x-ray. Keeping the hyphen gets those right, and a stray one in a split word is easy to spot. If the PDF used a soft hyphen, an invisible mark meant only for line breaks, the word is joined and the mark dropped.

            Fix odd PDF characters too

            PDFs often carry characters that look normal on screen but cause trouble later. Clean PDF text fixes these:

            • Ligatures. “fi”, “fl”, and “ff” are sometimes stored as a single character (fi, fl, ff). They look right, but a search for “file” may not find “file”. They are replaced with ordinary letters.
            • Non-breaking and zero-width spaces. These can stop text from wrapping or hide between two letters. They become ordinary spaces or are removed.
            • Curly quotes and the ellipsis character. Some older systems show these as strange symbols like ’. They become straight quotes and three periods.
            • Tabs, doubled spaces, and runs of blank lines. These shrink to single spaces and at most one blank line.
            • Bullets from symbol fonts. These paste as a box or a blank, and become a normal bullet (•).
            Before
            Client  said “I’m   doing fine.”



No new falls…
            After: Clean PDF text
            Client said "I'm doing fine."

No new falls...

            For a messy PDF, this order works well: Clean PDF text, then Remove line breaks, then Sentence case if the text was in capitals.

            If the PDF text is a list

            Remove line breaks would run list items together with spaces between them. For a list, use Join with commas, or Remove bullets to keep one item per line without the markers.

            Questions

            Will it merge my paragraphs?

            No. Paragraphs with a blank line between them stay separate. If your PDF had no blank lines between paragraphs, everything joins into one. Before you press the button, press Enter to add a blank line wherever a new paragraph should start.

            How do I remove every line break, paragraphs included?

            Press Remove line breaks twice. The first press joins the lines inside each paragraph. The second joins the paragraphs into one block.

            Does it work on text from Word or an email?

            Yes. Any text with hard line breaks in the middle of sentences works the same way, wherever it was copied from.