When would someone use a soft return instead of a hard one?

  • Thread starter Thread starter sheana
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sheana

I'm not grasping the concept of soft vs. hard returns and why someone would
choose one over the other. Could you please give an example? Thanks in
advance.
 
You don't "use" a "soft return," which is Word's natural word wrap at the
end of a line (which can be controlled somewhat with margin settings,
indents, and nonbreaking characters but otherwise not forced).

If you're referring to a line break (Shift+Enter), you use it any time you
want a new line but not a new paragraph. A good example of the use of this
is in typing poetry. The paragraph style used for the stanza can include
some Space Before/After (to allow extra space between stanzas), but the
stanza itself is single-spaced, so you insert a line break at the end of
each line (verse) and a paragraph break at the end of each stanza. Keeping
the stanza in a single paragraph also allows you to format the style, if
desired, as "Keep lines together" so it will stay together on one page.
 
If you're referring to a line break (Shift+Enter), you use it any
time you want a new line but not a new paragraph. A good example
of the use of this is in typing poetry. [...]
Click to expand...

Another example are auto-numbered and auto-bulletted lists. Often you want a line break inside a long list entry, but not the number/bullet (and indent, space before/after...) associated with a new list paragraph.
A manual line break is the simplest solution, and probably covers the vast majority of times I use Shift+Enter.

Some people argue that a list continuation paragraph style is the "proper" way to do that, but I find this too dogmatic, and most times too much hassle. I also prefer to keep the list of styles short and easily manageable.

Klaus
 
If you look at Word's built-in styles, there are several series named List,
List Number, and List Bullet. Each of these styles begins with a flush-left
style with a quarter-inch hanging indent. Each successive style is indented
a quarter inch more (List Number 2, for example, has a quarter-inch left
indent and a half-inch hanging indent). The List Continue series has a left
indent to match the hanging indent on the corresponding List/List
Number/List Bullet style; you use that for an unnumbered/unbulleted text
paragraph that continues the content of the numbered/bulleted paragraph
above it.
 
If you look at Word's built-in styles, there are several series
named List, List Number, and List Bullet. Each of these styles
begins with a flush-left style with a quarter-inch hanging
indent. Each successive style is indented a quarter inch more
(List Number 2, for example, has a quarter-inch left indent and a
half-inch hanging indent). The List Continue series has a left
indent to match the hanging indent on the corresponding List/List
Number/List Bullet style; you use that for an
unnumbered/unbulleted text paragraph that continues the content
of the numbered/bulleted paragraph above it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info!
 
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