You can use whatever character(s) you like in “Replace with” box. Thus all the paragraph breaks in you document will get replaced by a comma.
Let’s first see how to deal with paragraph break: If lines are breaking due to line break (carriage return), a left-angled arrow symbol will appear at the end. If lines are breaking because of paragraph break then ¶ will appear at the end of the lines. Our tips on MS-Word make your life easier and increase your productivity at work. You should click this button to be able to see what exactly is separating the lines. You can toggle the visibility of this character by clicking a button given on the Home tab in MS Word. In MS-Word, paragraph break is represented by invisible character (¶) which looks like a horizontally flipped P letter. And I wanted this list to become a comma separated list (CSV) so as to use it somewhere else. I was processing a long list of email addresses with one email address per line. Today, while doing a bit of data processing, I was required to remove all the line breaks (carriage return) in an MS-Word document and replace line breaks with a comma. There are several names line break, new line, carriage return, paragraph break etc. There are severl characters that act as line break. Subscribe to get more articles like this oneĭid you find this article helpful? If you would like to receive new articles, join our email list.When we see two lines of words in an MS Word document, we don’t get to see what is separating them.
Moving forward, it's best practice to use paragraph spacing (before and after paragraphs) to handle spacing rather than pressing Return or Enter twice after titles, subheadings and body paragraphs.
You can use it to find and replace formatting, styles and other special characters. If you want to remove all instances of two hard return and replace with one hard return, click Replace All.īelow is the expanded Find and Replace dialog box:įind and Replace is an extremely useful dialog box in Word. Click Replace and then click Find Next to go to the next instance.Ensure there is nothing in the Replace with box by pressing Delete (multiple times if necessary).Two paragraph mark codes should appear (his represents two hard returns). From the Special menu, choose Paragraph Mark again.From the Special menu, choose Paragraph Mark.Click More > to expand the dialog box (if necessary).Click Replace in the Editing group or press Ctrl + H.In the copy, position the cursor at the beginning of the document.To remove two hard returns or paragraph marks and replace with one using Find and Replace:
Typically, you'll want to replace two hard returns with one. Removing hard returns or paragraph marks using Find and ReplaceĪlthough you can select hard returns and press Delete to delete them, if you have a long document, it's easier to use Find and Replace to delete extra hard returns. You can remove a single hard return or paragraph mark by dragging over it and pressing Delete. Removing a single hard return or paragraph mark Click the same command to hide the paragraph marks and other nonprinting characters.
Paragraph marks, tabs, spacing and manual page breaks will display but will not print. Click Show/Hide ¶ in the Paragraph group.To view hard returns or paragraph marks and other nonprinting characters in Microsoft Word: Recommended article: How to Add or Remove Page Breaks in Microsoft Wordĭo you want to learn more about Microsoft Word? Check out our virtual classroom or live classroom Word courses > Showing hard returns or paragraph marks The fastest way to remove extra hard returns (typically two hard returns) is to use Word's Find and Replace command and special characters. In Word, it's better not use use hard returns (where you've pressed Enter or Return) to handle spacing after paragraphs or create new pages. In order to view and delete hard returns, you should display paragraph marks or symbols. You can easily remove or delete hard returns or paragraph marks in Microsoft Word using Find and Replace. Remove Paragraph Marks or Hard Returns in Microsoft Word DocumentsĪrticle by: Avantix Learning Team | Updated January 10, 2021Īpplies to: Microsoft ® Word ® 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019 or 365 (Windows)