Regex remove space between characters but ignore space at the beginning

Question

I have HTML code that I would like to clean up with search/replace regex. I have many instances where I have more than one space between words that I want to remove with regex but I want it to ignore the HTML indents at the beginning of each line. The expression \h{2,4} delete all space that are between 2 and 4 but how can I get it to ignore the indent at the beginning? Here is a sample HTML code:

<tr>
  <td><strong>Vamos a   sentarnos.</strong></td>
  <td><strong>Let's sit   down.</strong></td>
</tr>
  <tr>
  <td>veamos    (ver)</td>
  <td>let's see (to   see)​</td>
</tr>

Thanks

Answer 1

See if this works for you. It replaces any spaces if there are more than 2 of them and they are not at the beggining of the line.

(?<!^)\h\K\h+

Replace by "nothing"

Demo

Explained:

(?<!^) # not a previous begin of line
\h     # one horizontal space
\K     # ignore previous match
\h+    # one or more horizontal spaces

Optional approach

([^\n]\h)\h+ Replace by $1

Demo

or even: ([^\n][^\S\r\n])[^\S\r\n]+ (if \h is not supported) Replace by $1

Demo