Line Break vs. Section Break vs. enter

L

LMG

Hi,

I'd like to know the actual definitions of some of the terms in Microsoft
Word. For instance, what is the difference between a line break and just
pressing enter?

What is a section break? Are their any other related terms, and, if so, what
are their definitions.
 
J

Jay Freedman

I'd like to know the actual definitions of some of the terms in Microsoft
Word. For instance, what is the difference between a line break and just
pressing enter?

What is a section break? Are their any other related terms, and, if so, what
are their definitions.
Click to expand...

For starters, go read
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/NonPrintChars.htm. That will
tell you what the breaks look like when you turn on nonprinting
characters, so you can recognize them in your documents.

The most basic one is the paragraph mark (¶), which you get by
pressing Enter. Each paragraph can have different values of any of the
settings in the Format > Paragraph dialog and the Format > Tabs
dialog.

A manual line break, which you get by pressing Shift+Enter, forces a
new line without starting a new paragraph. That means all the same
paragraph formatting settings take effect on both sides of the line
break.

A section break, shown by a double dotted line containing the words
"Section Break", creates a new section. Each section can have
different values of margins, page orientation, headers and footers,
and page numbering. There are four kinds of section breaks:
- Continuous, which doesn't start a new page
- Next Page, which starts a new page
- Odd Page and Even page, which start a page of that type
You insert these with the Insert > Break dialog.

Besides these, there are:

- Manual page break (Ctrl+Enter) forces a new page but not a new
section.
- Manual column break (Ctrl+Shift+Enter) forces a new column in
multicolumn (newspaper-style) text.
- Text-wrapping break, which is a bit obscure. See the description in
the NonPrintChars article.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.
 
L

LMG

Thanks for your help. The article that you directed me to was extremely useful.

I have a question about a phrase that was written in the article, though.

It said, "...you should not be ending lines with paragraph breaks, nor
should you be using "empty paragraphs" to create "blank lines" between
paragraphs (in most cases this is better accomplished with Space Before or
After)."

Could you explain the last little bit - how do you get the blank lines
between paragraphs, not using the paragraph breaks?
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

Try this experiment. Type or paste several paragraphs in Normal style. Do
not include empty paragraphs between them. Select the text and press Ctrl+0.
This shortcut adds 12 points Space Before to the paragraphs. You'll see that
this has the effect of creating a "blank line" between the paragraphs. In
the Format Paragraph dialog you can add as much (or as little) Space Before
or After as you like. Although the spin box shows increments of 6 points,
you can type in exact amounts (72 points = 1 inch).
 
L

LMG

Is there any other way of doing that?

What is and how do I get to the Format Paragraph Dialog?

Thanks.
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

Is there any other way of doing what?

You get to the Format Paragraph dialog by choosing Paragraph on the Format
menu or by right-clicking and choosing Paragraph...
 
L

LMG

Thanks for your help.

Suzanne S. Barnhill said:
Is there any other way of doing what?

You get to the Format Paragraph dialog by choosing Paragraph on the Format
menu or by right-clicking and choosing Paragraph...
Click to expand...
 
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