Remove symbols from text in Notepad++

Question

After having searched the official help files and even the Wiki for Notepad++, I am sort of disappointed there is no explanation (or at least I could not find anything) for that enclosed FF symbol which is all over my text for some reason. I would like to remove that entirely from my file but it appears there are no resources how to handle this symbol with the find&replace procedure:

Support is much appreciated.

Oh, by the way: How can I use Notepad++ to add a linebreak before a certain string? So, after removing that FF symbol, add a linebreak right in front of "ENGLISH"? (Without doing that manually for each one, of course).

Solution 1

You can use Find&Replace with RegEx mode. "FF" symbol is ASCII character 12 (you can see it in Notepad++'s ASCII table), so you can match it in a RegEx with \x0C (0C is 12 in hexadecimal).

To remove it, search "\x0C" and replace it with "" (nothing).

To replace it with a line break, replace it with "\r\n" on Windows ("\n" on Linux).

To add a line break in front on "ENGLISH", search "(ENGLISH)" and replace it with "\r\n\1". Note that this will add a line break in every occurence of the string "ENGLISH", even if part of a larger word: "MYENGLISHBOOK" will be split as "MY" and "ENGLISHBOOK".

To add a line break in front of the word "ENGLISH" (but not when it occurs inside a larger word), search "\b(ENGLISH)\b" (\b matches a word boundary) and replace it with "\r\n\1".

Solution 2

FF is a form feed character, to replace it with newline do following :

• Select the FF, press Ctrl+H
• Choose Extended Mode
• Replace with \n
• Click Replace All