What Happens When You Press Shift+Enter in Word?
In Microsoft Word, when you press Enter, your cursor typically jumps ahead by two lines. But why does this happen, and is it possible to adjust it so that the cursor moves only one line? We’ll explain how this works and how you can make adjustments.
Line Break vs. New Paragraph
By default, Word automatically moves text to a new line, so there’s usually no need to manually add line breaks (as you would on a typewriter). Pressing Enter in Word creates a paragraph break, which is equivalent to inserting two line breaks at once.
In the example below:
- The first arrow points to a paragraph break.
- The second arrow points to a regular line break.
When you press Shift+Enter in Word, you get a traditional line break (or line feed). This moves the cursor down to the next line without skipping two lines. If you press Ctrl+Enter, it inserts a page break, which moves the cursor to the top of a new page.
How to Make Enter Perform a Single Line Break
If you prefer using Enter to create a single line break instead of a paragraph break, you can adjust the settings. Here’s how:
- Click the Home tab.
- Select Line and Paragraph Spacing (the icon with five horizontal lines and up/down arrows).
- In the menu that appears, click Line Spacing Options.
From here, you can make changes to how Enter behaves, ensuring it inserts only a single line break
In the Paragraph window that opens, find the Spacing section.
- Set the After value to 0 pt using the text box.
- Check the box next to Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style.
This will ensure that pressing Enter inserts a single line break without adding extra space between paragraphs.
If you want to set this as your default behavior, click Set as Default at the bottom of the window. Otherwise, simply click OK to apply the changes only to the current document. The next time you press Enter, you’ll notice that only a line feed is inserted instead of a paragraph break.