How to replace hard returns with soft returns in Word?
If you want to format a Word document by replacing paragraph marks (hard returns) with manual line breaks (soft returns) in it. How can you do to replace hard returns with soft returns in Word quickly? This tutorial will show you several ways to convert hard returns to soft returns.
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Hard Returns (paragraph marks) and Soft Returns (manual line breaks):
You can show paragraph marks and other hidden formatting symbols by clicking this Show/Hide button in the Home tab as follows.
Hard Returns (paragraph marks) Symbol: | Soft Returns (manual line breaks) Symbol: | |
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Replace hard returns to soft returns with Find and Replace function
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Normally you can replace hard returns (paragraph marks) to soft returns (manual line breaks) with the Find and Replace function, and it’s more convenient than replacing them one by one.
Step 1: In a Word document, click Home > Replace to open the Find and Replace window;
Alternatively, you can using shortcut by pressing Ctrl + H to open the Find and Replace window.
Step 2: Click More button to bring up more Search Options;
Step 3: Place the cursor in the Find what box, and select Paragraph Mark from the Special drop-down list;
Step 4: Place the cursor in the Replace with box, and select Manual Line Break from the Special drop-down list;
Step 5: Click Replace All.
Note: if you have selected a part of the document, it will indicate whether you want to find and replace in the whole document.
Replace hard returns to soft returns with VBA code
You can use the VBA code to replace hard returns (paragraph marks) with soft returns (manual line breaks) quickly.
Step 1: Press “Alt-F11” in Word to open the Microsoft Visual Basic for Application window;
Step 2: Click Module on the Insert tab, copy and paste the following VBA code into the Module window;
Step 3: Then click Run 
button to apply the VBA.
The VBA code: replace all hard returns (paragraph marks) to soft returns (manual line breaks) in the whole document.
Sub ReplaceMLBwithPM()
Selection.Find.ClearFormatting
Selection.Find.Replacement.ClearFormatting
With Selection.Find
.Text = "^p"
.Replacement.Text = "^l"
.Forward = True
.Wrap = wdFindContinue
.Format = False
.MatchCase = False
.MatchWholeWord = False
.MatchByte = False
.MatchAllWordForms = False
.MatchSoundsLike = False
.MatchWildcards = False
.MatchFuzzy = False
End With
Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
End SubReplace hard returns to soft returns with Kutools for Word
It’s the most convenient way to convert hard returns (paragraph marks) to soft returns (manual line breaks) by using Kutools for Word. Kutools for Word provides one click operation to accomplish the converting.
After installing Kutools for Word, you can replace soft returns with hard returns as follows.
1. Please apply this utility by clicking Kutools > More > Convert Paragraph Marks to Manual Line Breaks. See screenshot:
2. After clicking Convert Paragraph Marks to Manual Line Breaks, you will see the result as shown in the below screenshots:
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Note:
With Kutools for Word’s Convert Paragraph Marks to Manual Line Breaks utility, you can not only convert all hard marks to soft marks from the whole document, but also convert all hard marks to soft marks from the selected part of the document.
For more detailed information about Paragraph Mark to Manual Line Break of Kutools for Word, please visit: Paragraph Mark to Manual Line Break.
If you want to replace soft returns with hard returns, please visit: replace soft returns with hard returns in Word.
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