How to fix paragraph spacing and numbering in an existing Pages document without manually removing paragraph symbols?

Question

Level 1

14 points

How to fix paragraph spacing and numbering in an existing Pages document without manually removing paragraph symbols?

I did a multi page Pages document using the same keyboard habits as Word - hitting enter twice at the end of a line to start a new paragraph. Then I tried numbering the paragraphs and it put numbers between the paragraphs. To prevent this, the space between paragraphs has to be set before you start the document so that numbering doesn't read a new paragraph between the lines.

The problem is with a document that is already made and you have to fix this without manually removing the paragraph symbol between each paragraph.

Someone previously said to do a search find/replace n\n\ with n\. This didn't work, or maybe I was doing it incorrectly. I tried it a few times.

How do you get Pages to number paragraphs without putting numbers between paragraphs on a document that is already made. If you know, please give specific steps.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

MacBook Pro (M2, 2022)

Posted on Mar 30, 2025 10:09 AM

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Answer 1

Yellowbox

Level 7

21,551 points

Mar 30, 2025 8:58 PM in response to cindyjj

Hi Cindy,

Selecting a portion of your document and expecting 'Find and Replace > Replace All' to confine itself to that selection is not how Pages works. Pages replaces all Finds within the entire document. That is how Pages was designed!

Either:

use 'Replace & Find' until the end of that numbered list, or;
copy and paste that list to a new document, do 'Replace All' then copy and paste back to your main document.

My suggestion: use paragraph formatting to set the paragraph spacing from the very beginning. Double returns are so passé 👎.

Regards,

Ian.

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Answer 2

VikingOSX

Level 10

119,603 points

Mar 30, 2025 10:59 AM in response to cindyjj

Let's say you have this simple example:

and you apply the Find/Replace All solution:

which produces:

I now select these numbered paragraphs and in Spacing > After Paragraph, I click the increment arrow to open the paragraph spacing to the point size (e.g. 6 pt) preferred:

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Answer 3

cindyjj Author

Level 1

14 points

Mar 30, 2025 2:36 PM in response to VikingOSX

When I select my numbered paragraphs, click edit-find, then begin filling in find n\n\ and replace\n - at that time, everything deselects. This is what happened previously when I was trying to get it to work.