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When you press Enter in Microsoft Word, by default your cursor will jump forward two lines. But why does it do this, and is there a way to make it only advance one line? We will show you the answers.
line break vs. new paragraph
Since Word automatically wraps text to a new line by default, you usually don’t need to manually enter line breaks (like on an old paper typewriter) unless you’re applying some special text formatting. Therefore, Microsoft has made Enter the default for performing a paragraph break, which is like inserting two line breaks at once. In the example below, the first arrow points to a paragraph break and the second arrow points to a regular line break.
If you press Shift + Enter in Word, you’ll get a traditional line break (also known as a line feed). The cursor will go down to the next line instead of jumping forward two lines. Also, if you press Ctrl + Enter, it will insert a page break, which brings the cursor to the top of a new page.
RELATED: What is the difference between the “Enter” and “Return” keys?
How to make Enter perform a single line break
If you’re not happy with using Shift + Enter to insert a regular line break, you can change a few options to make Enter always give you a single line feed instead of a paragraph break. First, click the “Home” tab, then select “Paragraph Line & Spacing” (which looks like five horizontal lines with up and down arrows next to them). When the menu opens, click “Line Spacing Options.”
In the “Paragraph” window that opens, find the “Spacing” section. Set the “After” value to “0 pt” using the text input box. Next, check the box next to “Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style.”
If you want to set this as the default, click “Set as Default” at the bottom of the window. Otherwise, click “OK” and the changes will only apply to the open document. The next time you press Enter, you’ll notice that you only get a line feed instead of a paragraph break. Happy writing!
RELATED: How to Control Line and Paragraph Spacing in Microsoft Word
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