Text copied from a message, document, or web page often arrives with extra spaces and uneven line breaks. Before cleaning it, decide which parts of its structure matter. Paragraphs, indentation, poetry, and code can all depend on whitespace.
Use the smallest useful change
Text workbench offers three independent actions. “Trim lines” removes leading and trailing whitespace from each line and from the outside of the text. “Single spaces” turns repeated horizontal whitespace into one space. “Remove empty lines” removes lines containing no visible text.
These actions are intentionally separate. A code block may need its indentation, while a short list copied from an email may benefit from trimming. Removing empty lines from a long piece of writing also removes paragraph spacing, so read the result before saving it.
Keep a starting copy
- Paste a short piece of text and read it once before editing.
- Apply one change at a time.
- Check paragraph breaks, headings, and any indented sections.
- Copy or download the result only when the structure is right.
The sample button loads a clearly labelled piece of demonstration text. Reset restores that starting sample. For your own writing, keep the source elsewhere before making changes; the page does not maintain a permanent editing history.
Understand the counts
Characters are counted as Unicode code points, which is not always the same as visible symbols. Word counting is a simple text heuristic, not a linguistic analysis. The byte count measures the text encoded as UTF-8. These numbers describe the text, not its reading quality.