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You can control where Word and Outlook position automatic page breaks by setting pagination options.
Keep lines of a paragraph together on a page or in a column
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Select the paragraphs that contain lines you want to keep together.
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On the Home tab in Word, or on the FORMAT TEXT tab in an Outlook email, select the Paragraph Dialog Box launcher
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Select the Line and Page Breaks tab.
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Under Pagination, select Keep lines together.
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Select OK.
.Keep paragraphs together on a page or in a column
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Select the paragraphs you want to keep together on a page.
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On the Home tab in Word, or on the FORMAT TEXT tab in an Outlook email, select the Paragraph Dialog Box launcher
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Select the Line and Page Breaks tab.
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Under Pagination, select Keep with next.
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Select OK.
Always force a page break before a paragraph
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Select the paragraph that you want to follow the page break.
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On the Home tab in Word, or on the FORMAT TEXT tab in an Outlook email, select the Paragraph Dialog Box launcher
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Select the Line and Page Breaks tab.
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Under Pagination, select Page break before.
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Select OK.
Control widow and orphan lines
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Select the paragraphs in which you want to control widows and orphans.
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On the Home tab in Word, or on the FORMAT TEXT tab in an Outlook email, select the Paragraph Dialog Box launcher
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Select the Line and Page Breaks tab.
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Under Pagination, select Widow/Orphan control.
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Select OK.
Note: This option is turned on by default.
Suppress line numbers from a paragraph or paragraphs
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Select the paragraph or paragraphs.
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On the Home tab in Word, or on the FORMAT TEXT tab in an Outlook email, select the Paragraph Dialog Box launcher
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Select the Line and Page Breaks tab.
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Under Formatting, select Suppress line numbers.
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Select OK.
Remove hyphens from a paragraph or paragraphs
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Select the paragraph or paragraphs.
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On the Home tab in Word, or on the FORMAT TEXT tab in an Outlook email, select the Paragraph Dialog Box launcher
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Select the Line and Page Breaks tab.
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Under Formatting, select Don’t hyphenate.
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Select OK.
Text box options
You can use the text box options to more tightly wrap the text that surrounds the text box. To use these options, the text box border must be transparent (no line and no fill), and the Wrap Text must be set at Tight or Through.
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Inside the text box, right-click, and then select Paragraph.
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Select the Line and Page Breaks tab.
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Under Textbox options, in the Tight wrap list, select one of the following:
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All
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First and Last Lines
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First Line Only
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Last Line Only
Note: To undo changes, select None.
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Select OK.
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Microsoft Word belongs to Microsoft 365 and significantly simplifies the workday for those that work with text-based documents on a regular basis. One of the reasons for its popularity is its variety of options for formatting text. One thing that’s especially practical is the fact that Word automatically takes care of many of these formatting challenges. Among these is the insertion of an automatic link break in Word when a word goes beyond a provided line length.
In many cases it can make sense to insert a line break manually to improve the document’s overall structure. We’ll explain the differences between a soft and a hard line break (also called a return) and how you can apply both types of line breaks to structure your document. Do you work with Microsoft Word regularly? Our guide provides many more helpful articles on topics like Word macros and instructions on how to combine Word documents.
Contents
- What is a line break?
- How do you insert a line break in Word?
- Example: manual line break in Word with bullet points
- Example: manual line break in Word with justified paragraphs
- Making line breaks visible in Word
What is a line break?
The text editing program Microsoft Word offers lots of options when it comes to formatting text: such as defining the font size, line spacing, and text alignment. In addition, there are so-called spacing settings, such as the space before and after a paragraph. To start a new line within a paragraph, you can insert a line break in Word. This lets you jump to the next line, without having to change the set paragraph formatting or starting a new bullet point.
How do you insert a line break in Word?
By pressing the Enter key, you can achieve a hard return and start a new paragraph in Microsoft Word. This is probably the most used break. One that’s less common, though, is the manual line break in Word, which can be achieved by pressing down the right key combination. Using the Enter + Shift keys generates a so-called soft return. In doing so, you move to the next line while maintaining the defined formatting.
Tip
The key combination also works in other common text editing programs, as well as on different internet sites that have text and format fields.
Example: manual line break in Word with bullet points
Bullet points are a popular means of clearly structuring long sections of text and summarizing related information into a single point. However, a clear structure is also recommended within a bullet point, especially if a point covers several lines. With a manual line break in Word, a section can be clearly structured with breaks and blank lines. In this example, those places where manual line breaks are inserted are marked. Only in the case of a hard return or a new paragraph is a new bullet point inserted.
Example: manual line break in Word with justified paragraphs
If you are justifying text in Word, then you’re probably very familiar with the following problem: when you insert a manual line break at the end of a paragraph, Word stretches the last sentence over the entire width of the page. Due to the wide spacing, the text looks “patchy” and is difficult to read.
Luckily, this problem can be easily avoided. At the end of the sentence, press the Tab key and then then insert the manual line break in Word by using the key combination [Enter] + [Shift]. This will avoid Word from stretching out the sentence.
Making line breaks visible in Word
Formatting options such as font size or font color are obvious in a document. In contrast, it’s not immediately apparent whether a hard or soft return has been inserted in Word. For this purpose, the word processing program offers a practical function to highlight this kind of “invisible” formatting. To do this, activate the formatting characters.
Select the “Start” tab from the main menu and click the “¶” symbol in the “Paragraph” section. Alternatively, the function can also be activated or deactivated with the key combination [CTRL] + [Shift] + [+]. Up to version 2003 in Word, the feature to activate paragraph formatting characters is located on the standard toolbar. After clicking on it, Word marks all inserted line breaks as follows:
- The ¶ symbol marks all hard returns or paragraphs.
- A corner arrow marks a soft return in Word.
It’s not necessary to deactivate this function before printing a document since the formatting characters – as displayed on the print preview – are not printed on the final document.
Besides Microsoft Word there are also other programs like PowerPoint and Excel that are a part of Microsoft 365. Our Digital Guide is packed full of articles on topics like line breaks in PowerPoint and wrapping text in Excel.
Tip
With Microsoft 365 you’ll have access to the entire suite of Office programs, including Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel und Outlook.
Wrapping text in Excel: How to display the contents of your Excel cells on multiple lines
Excel cells often contain only a few numerical values or short text. But when you’re dealing with lengthy contents, the Microsoft application often hides a portion of the information. You can prevent this by wrapping text, which Excel allows you to do in two different ways. In this article, you’ll learn everything you need to know about this feature.
Wrapping text in Excel: How to display the contents of your Excel cells on multiple lines
How to change line spacing in Word easily
The default settings for Microsoft Word line spacing are not always enough. Fortunately, the software offers several options for customizing your documents. Unfortunately, these options are often hard to find. For example, if you want to change the line spacing in Word, you might have to search for this. We’ll help you find this feature so you can learn how to double-space in Word and more.
How to change line spacing in Word easily
Word table: Creating a table in Microsoft Word
In Word, tables prove useful in the most diverse situations, and you have several options for creating them. You can either use the table templates provided by the Microsoft tool, or you can design your own. This enables you to improve your reports, invoices or the performance of household tasks. Even data from Excel can be integrated as a table into a Word file.
Word table: Creating a table in Microsoft Word
How to turn spell check on and off in Word
In this guide, you’ll learn how to turn spell check on and off in Word. If you want to check your spelling in Word, you can set the application to automatically display misspelled words and grammatical errors. Word can also suggest corrections, which you can accept or ignore. You can show or hide these highlighted errors at any time.
How to turn spell check on and off in Word
Occasionally text in paragraphs is not aligned correctly or cannot be positioned as you like. This problem could be a line break, also called soft return or text wrapping break.
A paragraph is created by entering text and pressing the Enter key. It can contain only one word or one sentence, or multiple sentences. Each paragraph ends with a paragraph mark that looks like a reverse P (¶).
The line break moves the next word to the beginning of a new line without starting a new paragraph. A line break character looks like a right-angle arrow pointing to the left 
.
For example:
- Text with two paragraphs where lines end with paragraph breaks:
- Text with two paragraphs where lines end with line breaks:
Note: You can also see a right-angle arrow between two vertical lines 
. This symbol shows the line break that separate text around an object, wrapping text such as a caption text or an image from the body text:
A line break character and other structural characters, such as spaces, paragraph marks, and tabs (also known as Whitespace characters in typography, nonprinting characters, or formatting marks) are usually hidden, but you can display them.
To insert a line break, do the following:
1. Position the cursor in front of the word you want to move to a new line.
2. Do one of the following:
- On the Layout tab, in the Page Setup group, click Breaks, and then click Text Wrapping:
- Press Shift+Enter.
Line breaks are used to delimit a specific text or break a line before a word that would otherwise be hyphenated (see more about automatic hyphenation and manual hyphenation).
To remove line breaks, follow the two-step procedure:
I. Replace two consecutive line breaks with one paragraph break:
1. Open the Find and Replace dialog box by doing one of the following:
- On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click the Find list and then choose Advanced Find…:
- Click Ctrl+H.
- On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click the Replace button:
2. In the Find and Replace dialog box, on the Replace tab:
- In the Find what field, type ^l^l (the caret symbol plus the lowercase Ls twice).
- In the Replace with field, type ^p (the code for a paragraph break).
3. Click the Replace All button.
II. Replace line breaks with spaces or remove them:
1. Open the Find and Replace dialog box.
2. In the Find and Replace dialog box, on the Replace tab:
- In the Find what field, type ^l (the caret symbol plus the lowercase Ls).
- In the Replace with field:
- Type a space if you need to place a space instead of each line break.
- Leave empty if you already have a space at the end of each line.
3. Click the Replace All button.
See more about replacing special characters.
Note: Word offers a helpful feature named AutoFormat that can format selected text with a paragraph break at the end of each full line to delete all the paragraph breaks but the last. In some cases, it can determine where the “real” paragraph breaks are and leave them intact. To run AutoFormat, click Alt+Ctrl+K.
Table of Contents
- What is the difference between Enjambment and end stopped?
- What is an example of an end stopped line in poetry?
- Why is end stopped line used?
- How do you remove line breaks in Word?
- How do I remove a vertical line between columns in Word?
- What is the difference between a hard return and a soft return?
- What is a soft enter?
- What are hard returns?
- What are hard line breaks?
- How do you type a hard line?
- Why do I have to press shift enter?
- What is a column break?
- What are the 3 types of columns?
- How do I remove all column breaks in a Word document?
Show or hide tab marks in Word
What is the difference between Enjambment and end stopped?
End-stopped Line is the occurrence of a pause at the end of a line. Enjambment is the continuation of a sentence from one line to another, without terminal punctuation.
What is an example of an end stopped line in poetry?
2 Examples of End Stop in Poetry William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18” is a great example of end-stopped poetry. Written in iambic pentameter, the poem begins with a question, and each subsequent line ends with a colon, comma, or semicolon, until the last line, which ends with a full stop.
Why is end stopped line used?
The purpose of using end-stopped lines is to give poetic and rhythmic effect to the literary text. They tend to slow down the speed and give a clear idea of each line by creating a break at the end.
- Go to File > Options > Display.
- Under Always show these formatting marks on the screen, select the check box for each formatting mark that you always want to display regardless if the Show/Hide. button is turned on or off. Clear any check boxes for ones you don’t want always displayed.
Remove Line Breaks in Word: Show Section Breaks
- Go to the Home tab and, in the Paragraph group, select Show/Hide.
- All section breaks become visible in the document.
- Place the cursor to the left of break you want to remove, then press Delete.
- Select Show/Hide to hide the section breaks.
How do I remove a vertical line between columns in Word?
Select the table, Design contextual tab, Table styles group, Border button, click Inside Vertical border that should leave the table border and the horizontal lines. Note that the lines will not be deleted but just won’t print.
What is the difference between a hard return and a soft return?
Hard returns are used to signify the end of a paragraph, whereas soft returns simply signify the end of a line.
What is a soft enter?
A soft break, soft return, or soft enter is a carriage return automatically inserted by the software program, usually because of a word wrap. Soft returns allow you to continue typing without having to press Enter (may also be labeled as Return) manually at the end of each line or margin.
What are hard returns?
Hard return: Pressing the Enter key in Word ends a paragraph. It’s officially known as typing a hard return. Yes, it’s a return even though the key is known as Enter on a PC. The problem with the hard return is that it adds a bit of “air” after a paragraph.
What are hard line breaks?
The hard line break moves the next word to the beginning of a new line without starting a new paragraph.
How do you type a hard line?
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.
Why do I have to press shift enter?
By using Shift-Enter, you remove the gap between each line. This is also very useful when creating a bulleted or numbered list. Pressing Shift-Enter allows you to go to the next line without creating a new bullet or number. Discover more tips with our Microsoft Courses- available in-house training and online.
What is a column break?
A column break places a hard break, much like a page break or section break, in the inserted location and forces the rest of the text to appear in the next column. In a document that includes columns, place the cursor where you want the column to break.
What are the 3 types of columns?
(The) three types of columns are Doric, (Ionic), and Corinthian.
How do I remove all column breaks in a Word document?
To remove column breaks: If you want to show the breaks in your document, click the Show/Hide command on the Home tab. Place the insertion point to the left of the break you want to delete. Press the delete key to remove the break.
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Line breaks end a current line and lets you continue the text on another line. These are useful for separating paragraphs from each other, without the space registering as an empty line that can have characters on it. Manually putting in line breaks is useful for address blocks as well as poems because they omit the extra space between lines. To learn how to add a line break in MS Word, begin with step 1.
Steps
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1
Find a Word document. Using your computer’s file browser, find a document with the extension .doc or .docx.
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2
Open the document. Once you’ve found it, double-click the file and it will open in Microsoft Word.
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3
Locate and click on the area where you want to insert a line break. Scroll through the document until you locate where you want to insert a line break, and click the area. This will place the cursor in that area.
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4
Insert the line break. Hit the key combination Shift + Enter to create a line break. You will now be able to add content in the line right after the break.
- Notice that the cursor will not situate itself in the blank space where the break is when you click on the space. This is the line break.
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What is the difference between a line break and a paragraph break
The line break, which is done by hitting shift and enter, is a smaller break to just hop in a new line. A paragraph break, however, makes a bigger space and looks more like a new section.
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An alternative way of opening a Word file is to launch MS Word first. Once open, click “File” at the top-left of the screen then “Open.” Search for the document you want to open in the file browser that popped up. Once you’ve found it, select the file then click “Open” at the bottom right of the window.
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