Understanding Hard and Soft Returns

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated April 7, 2018)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


8

When you use a typewriter, you press the Return, or Enter, key at the end of each line. This signifies you are done with one line and ready to begin the next. In Word, however, you do not have to do this. When you set up your page margins, Word is programmed to know that when you reach the right margin your text should automatically wrap to the next line.

There may be times, however, when you want to end a line before you get to the right margin. In these instances, you can end a line in either of two ways. The first way is to press the Enter key where you want the line to end. This results in a hard return being entered in the document. This action (pressing Enter) indicates that you have reached the end of the paragraph and want to start a new one.

The other way to end a line is to press Shift+Enter; this results in a soft return, sometimes called a line break or a newline character, being entered in the document. Hard returns are used to signify the end of a paragraph, whereas soft returns simply signify the end of a line.

If you have changed your view options so you can see all nonprinting characters, then a hard return appears on your screen as a paragraph mark (a backwards P), and a soft return appears as a down-and-left pointing arrow.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (170) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Highlighting Every Thousandth Character

Not satisfied with the detail provided by the Word Count feature in Word? Perhaps you want to actually know where every ...

Discover More

Workaround for Multiple Rows of Worksheet Tabs

If you've got a lot of worksheets in your workbook, you may want to display their tabs in to rows at the bottom of the ...

Discover More

Crosschecking Citations and References

Word allows you to enter citations and references within your document. If you need to develop these types of documents, ...

Discover More

The First and Last Word on Word! Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate Word 2013. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2013 For Dummies today!

More WordTips (menu)

Entering a Page Break from the Keyboard

Need to force Word to move text to the top of the next page? It's easy when you use the keyboard shortcut for a page break.

Discover More

Slowing Down Mouse Selection

We've all experienced the problem: You start selecting a large block of text using the mouse, and before you know it the ...

Discover More

Inserting a Non-Breaking Space

In Word a non-breaking space will help you keep two words together on the same line. Here's two different ways that you ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 7 - 7?

2022-06-18 13:29:08

Maciej Słojewski

For some reason Unicode character for „soft return” in Microsoft Word is {U+000B} = Vertical Tabulation (VT), whereas „hard return” is equivalent of {U+000D} = Carriage Return (CR, ␍). In other words: surprisingly „soft return” ≠ Line Feed (LF).


2021-08-17 03:41:10

AG

Thank you. this was really helpful


2021-02-06 17:59:22

John Mann

William
Use Find/Replace. In the Find/Replace dialogue box, click into find the Find What section
Go to the Special button at the bottom, and click
From the list, select "Manual Line Break"
Leave the "Replace with' box blank, will simply remove the new-line.
You could, if necesary, replace with a space.

If you want a new paragaph at that spot
Click the "Replace with" Box, then again the Special button
The top of the list is "Paragraph Mark", which will replace the line break with a new paragraph.

You could experiment with other selections. Once you have the appropriate settings, use Replace All.

Hope that helps.


2020-09-19 07:34:04

William WALLACE

When I reformat some documents received electronically I notice breaks in mid sentence (or mid line) which I presume are soft returns in the original document. Removing these by Space + Delete is very tedious; how can I quickly remove all such soft returns/line breaks?

Any advice will be most welcome.

Geordie Lad


2019-01-31 11:40:13

Behdad

Hello. I have a question. I have Office 2013. in my Word, Shift-Enter regularly works; but it does not work in the footnote only in a specific file, while it works everywhere on any other file both in the text and in the footnote.
Thanks you for your reply.


2018-10-16 14:03:32

Brian Schwartz

Shift-Enter is how you do soft line breaks in MS Word on the Mac.


2018-08-21 00:13:31

Stan Hadley

How about in Word for Mac 2016? Shift+Return nor Shift+Enter create a soft return. I cannot find a way to make one on the Mac, but they do show up when opening a Word for Windows document.


2018-06-06 05:31:50

boolion

another excellent (though somewhat obscure) tip. thank you, sir
i'm working on a document with a required format that Table X and its description go on separate lines, but the 'Table' style inserts a large space between paragraphs.
obviously (now, thanks to your blog), what is required is a 'soft 'enter'.
my workaround: turn on 'formatting marks' and copy paste the 'soft enter' symbol.
to be sure, 'shift enter' is much easier


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.