I have the following text file and want to change the paragraphs so that
they fill 80 characters rather than the usual 65 in this case. Is there an easy way to do this?
All three groups were distinguished by the remarkable
manner in which they moved about on the solar surface, not
only in longitude but also in latitude.
The first group moved forward 5�"2 in longitude, and o 0 �6
upward in latitude, in� the four days following its formation.
In the fortnight that it was on the further side of the Sun
it moved forward 4�"0 in longitude, and 1�"1 downward in
latitude. It was no'Y a single circular spot, and remained nearly
stationary till its disappearance.
The second group, that of June 16, the principal group of
the year, showed the most extraordin,ary drift, as the first
diagram will show.
Some of the minor irregularities are probably due to faculous
or photospheric mat,ter drifting above portions of the group
and concealing certain di.stricts of it, revealing them again
by their witharawal later on. But as for the greater part of
its history, tbe group practically consisted of but one welldefined circular
spot, there can be no doubt that the apparent
change of place from day to day corresponds very closely to
the real movement of the centre of the group upon the
solar surface. In this and in the second diagram the observed
positions for the first and last days at each appearance are not
given, as only a portion of the group was visible on some of
those occasions, and the centre of the part observed was therefore
not the true centre of the group.
The third group of long duration, that of August z, was a very
perfect example, of the type above described. The first faint
spots were seen on .August 2. By August 4 the long stream of
spots with a large spot at either end had fully formed ; and by
August I 1 the leader alone remained. During the next rotation
the group consisted only of one large circular well-defined spots.
At its third appearance this circular spot was preceded by a
number of small spots, but. after September 26 the entire group,
and especially the smaller spots, began to diminish, and the
group had disappeared before reaching the west limb. The most
striking feature in �the history of the group was the rapid backward drift
shown after its first appearance The forward move ..
ment during the� first: rotation, the r~t.rogression whilst on _the
All three groups were distinguished by the remarkable manner in which they moved
about on the solar surface, not only in longitude but also in latitude. The
first group moved forward 5�"2 in longitude, and o 0 �6 upward in latitude, in�
the four days following its formation. In the fortnight that it was on the
further side of the Sun it moved forward 4�"0 in longitude, and 1�"1 downward in
latitude. It was no'Y a single circular spot, and remained nearly stationary
till its disappearance. The second group, that of June 16, the principal group
of the year, showed the most extraordin,ary drift, as the first diagram will
show. Some of the minor irregularities are probably due to faculous or
photospheric mat,ter drifting above portions of the group and concealing certain
di.stricts of it, revealing them again by their witharawal later on. But as for
the greater part of its history, tbe group practically consisted of but one
welldefined circular spot, there can be no doubt that the apparent change of
place from day to day corresponds very closely to the real movement of the
centre of the group upon the solar surface. In this and in the second diagram
the observed positions for the first and last days at each appearance are not
given, as only a portion of the group was visible on some of those occasions,
and the centre of the part observed was therefore not the true centre of the
group.
The third group of long duration, that of August z, was a very perfect example,
of the type above described. The first faint spots were seen on .August 2. By
August 4 the long stream of spots with a large spot at either end had fully
formed ; and by August I 1 the leader alone remained. During the next rotation
the group consisted only of one large circular well-defined spots. At its third
appearance this circular spot was preceded by a number of small spots, but.
after September 26 the entire group, and especially the smaller spots, began to
diminish, and the group had disappeared before reaching the west limb. The most
striking feature in �the history of the group was the rapid backward drift shown
after its first appearance The forward move .. ment during the� first:
rotation, the r~t.rogression whilst on _the
Im testing...
This was done by adding first line: .ll 80 above the text then using nroff:
NAME
par - filter for reformatting paragraphs
...
DESCRIPTION
par is a filter which copies its input to its output, changing all
white characters (except newlines) to spaces, and reformatting each
paragraph. Paragraphs are separated by protected, blank, and bodiless
lines (see the TERMINOLOGY section for definitions), and optionally
delimited by indentation (see the d option in the OPTIONS section).
...
If it is not in your system repository, it's available at: Par 1.52 - paragraph reformatter -- the web page contains an example of formatting to 44 characters, and pretty-printing comment lines (historical enclosures for an email reply) at the same time.
Many systems provide an fmt utility that is designed for simple stuff like this. It also correctly handles indented paragraphs. Try man fmt to see if your system includes this utility. If it does, the command you want is: