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)

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