I would suggest changing you approach, I think you are stuffing too much in that one line. You are doing format's job, when you try to control the layout with your own \r and \n's. 

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

my $last_line_label = 'IMPRESSION/PLAN: ';

my $line       =  'I discussed otitis media with her but since her ear
+s are normal today, we do not need to do anything with them.';
my $blank_line = '_____________________________';
my $sig        = 'Marcus Welby, M.D.';
my $prep_by    = 'MW/bnj';

format FLDFMT =

@<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<^<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
$last_line_label, $line
~~     ^<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
$line

       @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
       $blank_line
       @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
       $sig
       @<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
       $prep_by
.

    $~ = 'FLDFMT';
write;

[download]



grep
Mynd you, mønk bites Kan be pretti nasti...

In reply to Re: Using '/r' with '~~ $var' in format by grep
in thread Using '/r' with '~~ $var' in format by ff

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