From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
From: Bernt Hansen <bernt@norang.ca>
Subject: Re: From formatted to table
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:21:02 -0400
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In-Reply-To: <loom.20090929T164719-606@post.gmane.org> (andrea Crotti's
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To: andrea Crotti <andrea.crotti.0@gmail.com>
Cc: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org

andrea Crotti <andrea.crotti.0@gmail.com> writes:

> I have for example a table where
>
> | one thing     | dsjfls   |
> | two things    | dslkjfls |
> | three abc dej | dsf      |
>
> And I would like to get
>
> | one   | thing   | dsjfls   |
> | two   | things  | dslkjfls |
> | three | abc dej | dsf      |
>
> I tried some simple substitutions but substituting all the spaces in
> the region selected will cause problems elsewhere.  I would need to
> substitute " " only in one column, is that possible?

Anything is possible in Emacs :) -- just look at org-mode!

This sounds like a use for a keyboard macro to me...

Position point on line 1 of the table
C-x (
C-s SPC C-s RET |
C-a C-n
C-x e
and repeat 'e' for every line in the table
then C-p C-c C-c to realign.

If you do this a lot you can save the macro or build a lisp function
that does it - repeating for the entire table.

HTH,
-Bernt