Joining lines in word

In this article, we’ll mainly describe on how to merge your multiple lines into a single line in a convenient way.

A Real Case

As a poet, Sophie usually writes very long poems with many lines. However, it requires much more paper to print them. Therefore, she wonders whether she can merge all lines into one to save paper.

The Solution

If you encounter a problem similar to Sophie’s, then you can follow the steps to solve it.

1. To begin with, open your file in Word and select all lines you want to merge, as bellowed.
2. Then click “Replace” under the “Home” tab.
3. In the popup “Find and Replace” dialog box, under the “Find” tab, input “^p” in the “Find What” field.
4. In addition, you need click “Current Selection” in “Find In” drop down list like bellowed picture, to perform the replacement in the selection only.
5. Alternatively, you can also use shortcut “Ctrl” + “H” to open the dialog box.
6. Click the “Replace” tab, then keep the “Replace with” field empty, as you need to replace the ^p with empty text.
7. Finally, click “Replace All” button to perform the replace operation.
8. You will find immediately that all the lines in your selection have been merged into one.

Fix Your Word Files

We deal with a large number of files through Word in our daily work. Although Word is well-featured, it also has various problems from time to time. To take every precaution at beginning, it is wise to have a Word repair tool nearby.

Author Introduction:

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How do I combine multiple lines in one line?

1. Command + J on the Mac to join lines.
2. CTRL + J on Windows.
3. Edit > Lines > Join Lines.

How do I stop Word splitting two lines?

To stop words from splitting across lines in a paragraph or paragraphs by turning off automatic hyphenation:

1. Select the paragraph or paragraphs.
2. Click the Home tab in the Ribbon.
3. Click the dialog box launcher on the bottom right corner of the Paragraph group.
4. Click Line and Page Breaks.
5. Select or check Don’t Hyphenate.

How do you combine text in Word?

In this article

1. Select the Insert tab.
2. Select Object, and then select Text from File from the drop-down menu.
3. Select the files to be merged into the current document. Press and hold Ctrl to select more than one document. Documents will be merged in the order in which they appear in the file list.

How do you convert multiple lines to one line?

Select the lines you want to join ( Ctrl + A to select all) Choose Edit -> Line Operations -> Join Lines.

How do you merge lines?

When you want to merge two lines into one, position the cursor anywhere on the first line, and press J to join the two lines. J joins the line the cursor is on with the line below. Repeat the last command ( J ) with the . to join the next line with the current line.

How do you fix line breaks in Word?

Change the line spacing in a portion of the document

1. Select one or more paragraphs to update.
2. Go to Home > Line and Paragraph Spacing.
3. Select Line Spacing Options and choose an option in the Line spacing box.
4. Adjust the Before and After settings to change spacing between paragraphs.
5. Select OK.

How do you go to next line in Word without pressing enter?

If you are searching for a way to move the cursor down a line without pressing the Enter key but still break the current line at that point, consider using a line break (Ctrl+Shift+L).

How do you insert a horizontal line in Word?

How Do You Type a Horizontal Line?

1. Open the document.
2. Select the “Insert” tab, then “Shapes.”
3. From “Lines,” select the style you want.
4. On the document, select the place to add the line.
5. To draw the line, hold and drag your cursor, releasing it at the end.

How do you convert code to single line?

Step 1: Be prepared with the text which you want to convert. Step 2: Copy the text, JSON, String, Pdf or XML (whichever you want to convert). Step 3: Paste the copied content in the space provided. Step 4: Finally click the “convert” option to get the text converted in a single line.

How do you keep lines together in word?

Click the Home tab in the Ribbon and click the dialog box launcher on the bottom right of the Paragraph group. The Paragraph dialog box appears. Select the Line and Page breaks tab. Word displays options to keep the lines of the paragraph together or to keep the paragraph with the next paragraph. Check Keep lines together.

Where do I find line breaks in word?

Click the Home tab in the Ribbon and click the dialog box launcher on the bottom right of the Paragraph group. The Paragraph dialog box appears. Select the Line and Page breaks tab. Word displays options to keep the lines of the paragraph together or to keep the paragraph with the next paragraph.

How do you add a line to a Word document?

To insert a custom line, follow these steps: Go to Format | Borders And Shading. Click the Horizontal Line button. Click the Import button. Navigate to the file that contains the line you want to add and click the Add button to add the line to the Horizontal Line Gallery.

How to insert separator lines in Word quickly?

How to Insert All Kinds of Separator Lines in Word Quickly 1. Straight Line. It’s the most common line in Word. To quick insert it, just press “ – ” key on your keyboard for 3… 2. Double Straight Line. Similarly, input “ = ” for 3 time and then press [Enter] key. “===” will be converted to a… 3.

You can often improve the look of your document by keeping certain words and paragraphs together on the page or across page breaks. Also, you can use hyphenation to improve overall readability.

Word automatically breaks the text at a space or a hyphen at the end of a line. To keep two words or a hyphenated word together on one line, you can use a nonbreaking space or nonbreaking hyphen instead of a regular space or hyphen.

1. Click where you want to insert the nonbreaking space.

2. On the Insert tab, in the Symbols group, click Symbol.

   

3. In the box that opens, click More Symbols.

   

4. In the Symbol dialog box, on the Special Characters tab, click the Nonbreaking Space row to highlight it, and then click Insert.

   

5. Click Close.

   Tip: You can also use the keyboard shortcut. Click where you want to insert the nonbreaking space, and press Ctrl+Shift+Spacebar.

Sometimes you want a hyphenated word to stay together on one line, without it breaking across lines.

1. Click where you want to insert the nonbreaking hyphen.

2. On the Insert tab, in the Symbols group, click Symbol.

   

3. In the box that opens, click More Symbols.

   

4. In the Symbol dialog box, on the Special Characters tab, click the Nonbreaking Hyphen row to highlight it, and then click Insert.

   

5. Click Close.

   Tip: You can also use the keyboard shortcut. Click where you want to insert the nonbreaking hyphen, and press Ctrl+Shift+Minus Sign.

Word automatically breaks paragraphs at the end of a page, so a paragraph that started on one page continues on to the next page. To keep the whole paragraph on the same page, follow these steps.

1. Right-click the paragraph that you want to keep together. In the box that opens, select Paragraph.

   

2. In the Paragraph dialog box, click the Line and Page Breaks tab.

3. In the Pagination section, select the Keep lines together check box, and click OK.

If two consecutive paragraphs or a subhead and a paragraph are closely related, you might want to keep them on the same page.

1. Right-click the paragraph or subhead that you want to keep with the content that follows it. In the box that opens, select Paragraph.

   

2. In the Paragraph dialog box, click the Line and Page Breaks tab.

3. In the Pagination section, select the Keep with next check box, and click OK.

   Tip: It’s best not to add additional line breaks between your paragraphs because Word interprets each line break as a beginning of a new paragraph, and page breaks might not occur properly. If you want spaces between paragraphs, use the Paragraph Spacing controls. For more information, see Change spacing between paragraphs.

If a paragraph has a page break in the middle so that only the last line appears at the top of the following page, this lonely line is called a “widow.” If, on the other hand, a paragraph has a page break in the middle so that only the first line appears at the bottom of a page while the rest of the paragraph appears on the next page, this lonely line is called an “orphan.”

If you want to avoid widow and orphan lines in your document, follow these steps.

1. Right-click the paragraph in which you want to avoid widows and orphans. In the box that opens, select Paragraph.

2. Click the Line and page breaks tab.

3. In the Pagination section, select the Widow/Orphan control check box.

4. Click OK.

If a word is too long to fit at the end of a line, Microsoft Office Word 2007 moves the word to the beginning of the next line instead of hyphenating it. However, you can use the Hyphenation feature to automatically or manually hyphenate the text, insert optional or nonbreaking hyphens, and set the maximum amount of space allowed between a word and the right margin without hyphenating the word.

With automatic hyphenation, Office Word 2007 automatically inserts hyphens where they are needed. If you edit the document later and change line breaks, Office Word 2007 will re-hyphenate the document.

1. Make sure that no text is selected.

2. On the Page Layout tab, in the Page Setup group, click Hyphenation, and then click Automatic.

   

An optional hyphen is a hyphen that is used to control where a word or phrase breaks if it falls at the end of a line. For example, you can specify that the word «nonprinting» breaks as «non-printing» instead of «nonprint-ing.» When you insert an optional hyphen in a word that is not at the end of a line, the hyphen will be visible only if you turn on Show/Hide.

1. On the Home tab, in the Paragraph group, click Show/Hide.

   

2. Click in the word where you want to insert the optional hyphen.

3. Press CTRL+HYPHEN.

To automatically hyphenate part of a document, do the following:

1. Select the text that you want to hyphenate.

2. On the Page Layout tab, in the Page Setup group, click Hyphenation, and then click Automatic.

   

When you manually hyphenate text, Office Word 2007 searches for text to hyphenate. After you indicate where you want to hyphenate the text, Word inserts an optional hyphen. If you later edit the document and change line breaks, Office Word 2007 displays and prints only the optional hyphens that still fall at the end of lines. Word doesn’t re-hyphenate the document.

1. Select the text you want to hyphenate.

2. On the Page Layout tab, in the Page Setup group, click Hyphenation, and then click Manual.

3. If Office Word identifies a word or phrase to hyphenate, do one of the following:

   • To insert an optional hyphen in the location that Office Word proposes, click Yes.

   • To insert an optional hyphen in another part of the word, move the insertion point to that location, and then click Yes.

Nonbreaking hyphens prevent hyphenated words, numbers, or phrases from breaking if they fall at the end of a line of text. For example, you can prevent 555-0123 from breaking; instead, the entire item will move to the beginning of the next line.

1. Click where you want to insert a nonbreaking hyphen.

2. Press CTRL+SHIFT+HYPHEN.

The hyphenation zone is the maximum amount of space Office Word 2007 allows between a word and the right margin without hyphenating the word. You can change the hyphenation zone to make it wider or narrower. To reduce the number of hyphens, make the hyphenation zone wide. To reduce the raggedness of the right margin, make the hyphenation zone narrower.

1. On the Page Layout tab, in the Page Setup group, click Hyphenation, and then click Hyphenation Options.

2. In the Hyphenation zone, type the amount of space you want.

You can remove all automatic hyphenation and each instance of manual hyphenation, such as optional and nonbreaking hyphens.

• To remove automatic hyphenation, on the Page Layout tab, in the Page Setup group, click Hyphenation, and then click None.

1. To remove manual hyphenation, on the Home tab, in the Editing group, click Replace.

2. If you don’t see the Special button, click More.

3. Click Special, and then click either Optional Hyphen to remove manual hyphens, or Nonbreaking Hyphen to remove nonbreaking hyphens.

4. Leave the Replace box empty.

5. Click Fix Next, Replace, or Replace All.

See Also

Line and page breaks

Insert a page break

Change spacing between paragraphs

If there are hundreds and thousands of paragraphs in your Word document, when printing this document, it will need a lot of paper. For saving papers, you can merge these multiple lines into one single paragraph. However, how could you combine all these lines into one paragraph quickly and easily in Word document?

Merge or combine multiple lines into one single paragraph with Find and Replace function

Merge or combine multiple lines into one single paragraph with VBA code

---

Merge or combine multiple lines into one single paragraph with Find and Replace function

The Find and Replace function in Word can help you to merge multiple lines into one paragraph, please do as this:

1. Select the paragraphs that you want to merge into one paragraph.

2. And then, click Home > Find > Advanced Find to go the Find and Replace dialog box, in the Find and Replace dialog box, under the Find tab, please enter ^p into the Find what text box, and then select Current Selection option from the Find In drop down list, see screenshot:

3. Then go to the Replace tab, and leave the Replace with text box empty, and then click Replace All button, see screenshot:

4. And all the selected paragraphs have been merged into one single paragraph, see screenshot:

---

Merge or combine multiple lines into one single paragraph with VBA code

Here is another useful method also can help you to finish this job in Word, please do with following steps:

1. Select the lines that you want to merge into one paragraph.

2. Then, hold down the ALT + F11 keys to open the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window.

3. And then, click Insert > Module, copy and paste below code into the opened blank module.

VBA code: Merge multiple lines into one single paragraph:

Sub CleanUpPastedText()
    Dim xSelection As Selection
    On Error Resume Next
    Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Set xSelection = Application.Selection
    If xSelection.Type <> wdSelectionIP Then
        FindAndReplace xSelection
    Else
      If MsgBox("Do you want to merge all selected lines into one paragraph?", vbYesNo + vbInformation, "Kutools for Word") = vbNo Then Exit Sub
      xSelection.WholeStory
      Set xSelection = Application.Selection
      xSelection.HomeKey wdStory
      FindAndReplace xSelection
    End If
    Application.ScreenUpdating = True
    Application.ScreenRefresh
    MsgBox "The selected lines have been merged into one paragraph.", vbInformation, "Kutools for Word"
End Sub
Sub FindAndReplace(Sel As Selection)
    With Sel.Find
        .ClearFormatting
        .Replacement.ClearFormatting
        .Forward = True
        .Wrap = wdFindStop
        .Format = False
        .MatchAllWordForms = False
        .MatchSoundsLike = False
        .MatchWildcards = True
        .Text = "[^s^t]{1,}^13"
        .Replacement.Text = "^p"
        .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
        .Text = "([!^13])([^13])([!^13])"
        .Replacement.Text = "13"
        .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
        .Text = "[ ]{2,}"
        .Replacement.Text = " "
        .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
        .Text = "([a-z])-[ ]{1,}([a-z])"
        .Replacement.Text = "12"
        .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
        .Text = "[^13]{1,}"
        .Replacement.Text = "^p"
        .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
    End With
End Sub

4. And then press F5 key to run this code, and all selected paragraphs have been combined into one paragraph as following screenshot shown:

---

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3 Ways to Keep Text Together in Microsoft Word Documents

by Avantix Learning Team | Updated April 5, 2021

Applies to: Microsoft^® Word^® 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019,  2021 and 365 (Windows)

You can keep text together in several ways in Word. If you want to keep words or characters together, you can use nonbreaking spaces or nonbreaking hyphens or dashes and insert them using a dialog box or a keyboard shortcut. If you want to keep lines or paragraphs together on the same page, you can apply settings in the Paragraph dialog box (which can be built into styles if you use styles).

You may want to keep the lines in a paragraph together so that the paragraph doesn’t break across pages or you may want to keep a paragraph with the next paragraph and avoid inserting manual page breaks. This can be accomplished easily using the Paragraph dialog box (and can be built into styles if you use styles).

It’s important to understand some key paragraph concepts:

• A paragraph in Word is anything with a hard return after it (you have pressed Enter or Return).
• It’s best to eliminate any blank paragraphs in a long document.
• You can view paragraph marks or symbols by clicking Show/Hide ¶ on the Home tab in the Ribbon in the Paragraph group.

Recommended article: 14 Timesaving Microsoft Word Selection Shortcuts to Quickly Select Text

Do you want to learn more about Microsoft Word? Check out our virtual classroom or live classroom Word courses >

Keeping lines together in a paragraph

To keep the lines in a paragraph together on the same page in Word using the Ribbon:

1. Select the paragraph in the Word document with the text you want to keep together. You can simply click in the paragraph to select it.
2. Click the Home tab in the Ribbon and click the dialog box launcher on the bottom right of the Paragraph group. The Paragraph dialog box appears.
3. Select the Line and Page breaks tab. Word displays options to keep the lines of the paragraph together or to keep the paragraph with the next paragraph.
4. Check Keep lines together.
5. Click OK. The paragraph will no longer break across pages.

Below is the Paragraph dialog box in Word with Keep lines together selected:

You can also use a context menu to access the Paragraph dialog box (right-click in a paragraph and choose Paragraph from the drop-down menu).

Keeping a paragraph with the next paragraph

To keep a paragraph on the same page with the next paragraph using the Ribbon:

1. Click in the paragraph you want to keep with the next paragraph (the next paragraph should not be a blank paragraph).
2. Click the Home tab in the Ribbon.
3. Click the dialog box launcher on the bottom right of the Paragraph group. The Paragraph dialog box appears.
4. Select the Line and Page breaks tab.
5. Check Keep with next.
6. Click OK.

You can also use a context menu to access the Paragraph dialog box (right-click in a paragraph and choose Paragraph from the drop-down menu).

Keeping text together with nonbreaking spaces

If you want specific words or characters to stay together on the same line (such as De Marco), you can use nonbreaking spaces instead of regular spaces.

To insert a nonbreaking space between two words or characters using a keyboard shortcut:

1. Position the cursor between the two words or characters you want to keep together (there should be no space between these characters).
2. Press Ctrl + Shift + Spacebar. Word inserts a nonbreaking space.

To insert a nonbreaking space between two words or letters using the Ribbon:

1. Position the cursor between the two words or characters you want to keep together (there should be no space between these characters).
2. Click the Insert tab in the Ribbon.
3. Click Insert Symbol and then More Symbols in the drop-down menu. A dialog box appears.
4. Select the Special Characters tab.
5. Select Nonbreaking space and click Insert.
6. Click Close. Word inserts a nonbreaking space.

Below is the Insert Symbol dialog box to insert a non-breaking space:

Keeping text together with nonbreaking hyphens or dashes

You can also use nonbreaking hyphens or dashes to keep words or characters together (such as co-ordinator or 416‑222‑9999).

To insert a nonbreaking hyphen between two words or characters using a keyboard shortcut:

1. Position the cursor between the two words or characters you want to keep together (there should be no space between these characters).
2. Press Ctrl + Shift + Underscore (_). Word inserts a nonbreaking hyphen.

To insert a nonbreaking hyphen between two words or characters using the Ribbon:

1. Position the cursor between the two words or characters you want to keep together (there should be no space between these characters).
2. Click the Insert tab in the Ribbon.
3. Click Insert Symbol and then More Symbols in the drop-down menu. A dialog box appears.
4. Select the Special Characters tab.
5. Select Nonbreaking hyphen and click Insert.
6. Click Close. Word inserts a nonbreaking hyphen.

To view nonbreaking spaces, nonbreaking hyphens and paragraph marks:

1. Click the Home tab in the Ribbon.
2. Click the Show/Hide ¶ in the Paragraph group.

You can turn off the symbols by clicking on the same button.

You can also quickly find and remove nonbreaking spaces or hyphens using the Replace dialog box.

To find and remove nonreaking spaces or hyphens:

1. Press Ctrl + H. The Replace dialog box appears. You can also click the Home tab in the Ribbon and click Replace in the Editing group.
2. Click More to expand the dialog box if necessary.
3. Click in the Find What box.
4. Click Special. A drop-down menu appears.
5. Select nonbreaking space or nonbreaking hyphen.
6. Ensure the Replace with box is empty.
7. Click Find Next. Word should find the first nonbreaking space or nonbreaking hyphen.
8. Click Replace or Replace All.
9. Click Close.

Below is the Replace dialog box:

Although all of these techniques will keep text together, keeping paragraphs together is the most important. If you start using paragraph formatting to keep specific paragraphs together, you can avoid using manual page breaks for pagination.

This article was originally published on July 14, 2017 and has been updated for clarity and content.

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