How to Force Text to a New Line in InDesign (Not a New Paragraph)

Learn how to force text to a new line in InDesign without creating a new paragraph. This is done by inserting a Forced Line Break, also known as as Soft Return. Details below...

With the cursor inside a block of text, to insert a Forced Line Break, do one of the following...

Menu:
Type - Insert Break Character - Forced Line Break

Keyboard shortcut:
Mac: Shift + Return
Windows: Shift + Enter

[timoxton]

I was FREAKING out trying to fix this. Thank you for the concise and helpful video!

[iancotebasque]

Thanks, that got my end of line punctuation sorted, before I had the punctuation on the following line.

[mohamelsadig]

Great tips as always, thanks again Michael!

[barrymerrick]

Shift/Return works in list paragraphs, bullets or numbers. I have been using this for years in Pages for Mac. A new bullet/number is created with a Return.

[ROnyBOse]

Hi, Is there any way to ensure that the text displayed in the columns does not end with a short word such as: of, the, a, an, our, etc.
in InDesign? (Windows)

[chrismarroy]

Great video, thanks. How would you change the alignment/justification of a forced line break section without affecting the rest of the same paragraph? For example, if the top and bottom sections you made remain in left align, but you wanted that single line to be center aligned?
In particular, I'm having trouble figuring out how to have most of the paragraph justified with the last line aligned to the left, then a forced line break beneath that is center aligned. They don't seem to want to play nicely. I've tried making a new paragraph and backing up the leading to make it look consistent, but it stops short. I'm clueless! Any thoughts?

[cpujolsdesign]

I've seen other tutorials where the hidden characters show that the enter key has been pressed twice to create a new paragraph. Is there no way to create the line break and have InDesign recognize it as a new paragraph?

[hzubovi]

If I want to justify with the last line the forced line break spreads instead of remaining the same width. Do you know how to fix this?

[muhammadsufyanali]

Can we reduce height of the forced line break if so, how ?