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Quickly replace or convert hard returns to soft returns in Word

Author: Sun Last Modified: 2025-03-20

If you want to convert all hard returns (paragraph marks) to soft returns (manual line breaks) in Word, Kutools for Word’s Paragraph Marks to Manual Line Breaks utility will can quickly convert all hard returns (paragraph marks) to soft returns (manual line breaks) from whole document or a part of the document in Word.

A hard return hard return icon is when the user presses the Enter key to bring the cursor onto a new line. A soft return soft return iconhappens when the text automatically wraps onto the next line. You can insert soft return by pressing Shift + Enter.

Convert all hard returns to soft returns in whole document

Convert all hard returns to soft returns in a part of the document

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Click Kutools> Convert > Paragraph Marks to Manual Line Breaks. See screenshot:

Paragraph Marks to Manual Line Breaks feature of kutools


Convert all hard returns to soft returns in whole document

If you have a document with paragraph marks as shown as bellow, and you need to convert them to manual line breaks, you can get it done as follow:

sample document

1. Put your cursor on the current document and then apply the utility by clicking Kutools > Convert > Paragraph Marks to Manual Line Breaks. And a prompt box will pop out to remind you if you want to convert all paragraph marks to manual line breaks in whole document. Click Yes to start converting.

prompt box

2. You will see the results as shown in the screenshots:

original document
arrow down
all paragraph marks are converted to manual line breaks in document

Convert all hard returns to soft returns in a part of the document

If you only want to replace or convert all hard returns to soft returns in a part of the document in Word, you can get it done as follows:

1. Please highlight and select a part of the current document as shown in the below screenshot, and then apply the utility by clicking Kutools > Convert > Paragraph Marks to Manual Line Breaks.

select part of the document

2. You will see the results as shown in the below screenshots:

original document
arrow down
all paragraph marks are converted to manual line breaks in selection

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