Replacing multiple dots, tildes, stars etc., e.g. in MS Word DOC files

In some text or DOC files you may find lines like these, separating parts of text:
 
....................................................................
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*******************
 
To replace multiple dots with a single dot in @Voice, use menu - Settings - Edit speech, then add a new replacement as follows:
 
                Replacement type: Regular Expression (RegEx)
                Pattern: \.{2,}
                Replace: .
 
To replace it with nothing, make the “Replace” field empty. The \. In regular expression means just dot. The {2,} means when there are two or more. If you wanted the replacement to work only when there are 4 or more dots, you would use instead:
 
                \.{4,}
 
To replace multiple tildes:
 
                Replacement type: Regular Expression (RegEx)
                Pattern: ~{2,}
                Replace:
 
The “Replace” field above is empty, my suggestion. You could change replace to e.g. “multiple tildes”, then @Voice would say “multiple tildes” if it encounters ~~~~~~~.
 
For stars:
 
                Replacement type: Regular Expression (RegEx)
                Pattern: \*{2,}
                Replace:
 
and so on….