How to convert double line breaks into single ones in Google Docs

[SwiftCoder15]

I’m working on a document that has way too many empty lines between paragraphs. There are multiple line breaks scattered throughout the text and I want to clean it up by replacing them with just single line breaks.

I know that Google Sheets has regex support with capture groups in their find and replace feature, but Google Docs seems more limited. I’ve been trying to figure out how to do this kind of text cleanup but I’m not having much luck.

The issue is that I have sections like this:

Paragraph one

Paragraph two

And I want them to become:

Paragraph one

Paragraph two

Is there any straightforward method to accomplish this text formatting task in Google Docs that I might be overlooking?

[JackWolf69]

Had the same problem editing a long document recently. Here’s what works: use Find and Replace in Google Docs, but target paragraph markers instead of line breaks. Hit Ctrl+H, then put \n\n\n in the ‘Find’ box to catch those empty lines, and \n\n in ‘Replace’ to leave just one paragraph break. You might need to run this a few times depending on your document’s formatting. Just make sure you backup your file first - sometimes the results can be wonky.

[Hermione_Book]

Google Docs has a workaround through Find and Replace, but it’s pretty limited compared to regex. I usually hit Edit > Find and Replace, then click the three dots for special characters. You can search for paragraph breaks that way. Just search for two paragraph breaks in a row and replace with one. You might need to run it a few times if there are triple or quadruple line breaks. What works better for me is copying the text to a plain text editor first, cleaning it up with real regex, then pasting back. Extra step, but you get way more control.

[Luke_Brilliant]

there’s a simpler fix! just head over to Format > Line Spacing and adjust it to single or a custom option. it actually resolves a lot of spacing probs without messing with find/replace. totally saved me when i imported docs from word that were all messed up!