Searching for Paragraph Marks and Line Breaks

Summary: Paragraph marks (created by pressing Enter) and line breaks (created by pressing Shift+Enter) are two of the most common special characters in a document. Word allows you to easily search for these characters, using the method described in this tip. (This tip works with Microsoft Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, and Word 2003.)

Word allows you to search not just for text, but also for special characters that normally do not print. Two of the most common characters you will find yourself searching for are paragraph marks and line breaks (sometimes called newline characters). To search for these characters, follow these steps:

Choose Find from the Edit menu. Word displays the Find tab of the Find and Replace dialog box.
In the Find What box, enter the text for which you want to search. To search for a paragraph mark, enter ^p; to search for a line break, enter ^l. It is important to use a lowercase p or l.
Set other searching parameters, as desired.
Click on Find Next.

Tip #7 applies to Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

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Searching for Paragraph Marks and Line Breaks