The Leading Chars pop-up menu in the Process Select window controls how a specific character string is compared to, or simply inserted at, the beginning of each line. It can also be used to replace or remove white space from the start of each line.
The leading string used to compare and replace leading characters defaults to a single space and may be redefined by choosing the Edit [String]… item in the pop-up menu. Characters may be entered by keyboard or clipboard, or in ASCII format. This string is limited to 32 characters and cannot contain wildcard characters.
When stripping or replacing with a tab, the string is repeatedly compared with the start of the line until there is no match, so that a single space can remove or replace all leading spaces. Likewise, a single period serves for leader dots.
White space, which A/S defines as spaces, tabs, and option-spaces, can be removed or replaced with the contents of the leading string.
