Remove Extra Space Between Paragraphs in WordPress

WordPress Tip: How to remove extra space between paragraphs

Are you ever typing in the WordPress visual editor, then hit the “enter” button, only to be left with a huge, gaping space where you only wanted to drop down to the next line?

How to remove extra space in WordPress

 
Then you try messing with the text, press delete, hit enter again, look at the text editor, remove that little space, and switch back to the visual editor again to keep typing?

Do you wish there was a quicker way to remove that extra space between paragraphs when you need to?

 

QUICK TIP: hold shift, then hit enter.

What!?! Yes. That simple. Holding shift down before you hit enter will remove extra space between paragraphs and start your next line directly beneath the last one!

 

Geeky Explanation:

When you hit the “Enter” key on your keyboard, WordPress automatically thinks you are starting a new paragraph, so it inserts a paragraph tag. If you hit “Shift”+”Enter”, WordPress recognizes that you are not starting a new paragraph, you are simply starting a new line, and enters a line break tag.

Hopefully this quick tip will save you buckets of time when you’re writing your blog masterpieces 🙂

Your turn: let me know in the comments. Is there something about WordPress that bugs you, or that takes you a bunch of steps to complete? I’d love to help you out in my next WordPress Quick Tip!

 

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42 Comments

  1. Darryl Grant
    Darryl Grant on August 24, 2016 at 1:02 pm

    Yay!!! This also helped in Google’s Blogger — and those extra spaces had been driving me crazy. So, many thanks>

    • Jamie Leigh
      Jamie Leigh on August 24, 2016 at 5:56 pm

      Sweet! So glad this helped, Daryl!!

      :))

  2. Jess
    Jess on November 10, 2016 at 2:15 pm

    Thanks so much! Such a game changer 🙂

  3. B Stevens
    B Stevens on February 16, 2017 at 11:11 am

    HUGE help to someone just getting started on wordpress! Thank you!

    • jamieleigh
      jamieleigh on February 21, 2017 at 10:42 am

      Awesome, glad to be of support, B!

  4. Jim Houghton
    Jim Houghton on February 26, 2017 at 1:34 pm

    I love you! Thanks!

  5. Linda
    Linda on March 27, 2017 at 7:38 pm

    Hi! This is unfortunately not a solution, when it’s after a heading. I want to remove the extra space between the heading and my text underneath. When I hold shift and hit enter, WordPress thinks, that my text is a header too. How do I resolve this?

    • jamieleigh
      jamieleigh on March 29, 2017 at 9:16 am

      Hiya Linda!

      This sounds like it may be a theme-specific issue. You may want to either:

      1. Check your theme style sheet to see how much padding you’ve got at the bottom of each heading OR

      2. Use the HTML editor. Sometimes when you are struggling with alignment issues or the editor not allowing you to start a new line, switching to HTML editor is the fastest solution. Just click on the “Text” tab on the editor next to the “Visual” tab on the left hand side of the editor and check your paragraph spacing.

      Hope this helps!

  6. Jennifer McCarthy
    Jennifer McCarthy on April 23, 2017 at 4:08 am

    You’re amazing! Saved me a LOT of frustration! Thank you!

  7. Susan Edwards
    Susan Edwards on April 26, 2017 at 2:09 pm

    Huge help! Thank you thank you thank you for such a simple, elegant fix. Do you know how many people out there suggests all sorts of html gymnastics to do this simple thing? I was tearing my hair out until I found you.

  8. Thea
    Thea on May 26, 2017 at 6:54 pm

    OMG, I love you! THANK YOU! 🙂

  9. Costa Blanca
    Costa Blanca on September 21, 2017 at 8:34 am

    Perfect, just what I was looking for.

  10. Patrenia
    Patrenia on September 22, 2017 at 8:21 am

    OMG! This has driven me crazy in ConvertKit. I can’t believe the solution was so simple. THANK YOU! 🙂

  11. Kate Annie
    Kate Annie on October 7, 2017 at 10:03 am

    thank you so much!!! You just changed my life (haha. but, seriously).

    thank you!!

  12. Charlie
    Charlie on October 13, 2017 at 9:50 am

    That extra space was driving me nuts! Thank you so much. Something so simple. LOL

  13. Barry
    Barry on October 25, 2017 at 12:58 pm

    This just changed my world. Frustration monkey just jumped off my back
    literally. Thank you Jamie

  15. iOS Games
    iOS Games on November 28, 2017 at 2:49 am

    Thanks. its very easy and clear

  16. Dionne "DivaBossLady"
    Dionne "DivaBossLady" on January 12, 2018 at 8:15 am

    Jamie Leigh…… girrrl you are an Heaven sent Angel!!! I am just in awe of how simple your fix (Hold Shift+Enter) was to get rid of the extra unneeded gaping blank lines. I’ve been struggling with this for SEVERAL HOURS today while working on a draft WordPress Calendarize event. Been dealing with this for a few years but never found a fix until now. One less thing to stress about! You are the bomb.com! I’m gonna put this in my 2018 “Good Things Jar”. Thank you so much for sharing 🙂

  17. Helena
    Helena on January 17, 2018 at 3:32 pm

    I love you, 20 minutes spent, copy, paste, enter, back, Word… thank you!

  18. Cheryl Hennessy
    Cheryl Hennessy on January 23, 2018 at 2:27 pm

    Thanks JL! Appreciate being able to find your solution so quickly and that it’s so simple.
    Super grateful for you sharing it with all of us!

  19. Carolyn
    Carolyn on February 8, 2018 at 4:54 am

    Hi Jamie,
    I’m having a problem with the home page of my wordpress blog. Too much space between one of my post pictures and the text, just one the rest are ok. How can I fix this? I’ve tried to go into edit but it doesn’t fix it?
    Thank you! Carolyn

    • jamieleigh
      jamieleigh on February 10, 2018 at 9:02 am

      Hiya Carolyn,

      Thanks for your question! Different WordPress themes can have different styles for image padding, so it’s tough to say exactly what’s going on with your site without taking a look.

      However, you might want to try looking at the page in “Text” mode (as opposed to “Visual” mode) to see if there are any extra paragraph or non-breaking space characters between your image and your text. If there is, just delete it and you’ll remove that extra space.

      space between image and paragraph WordPress

      Hope this helps!
      -Jamie

  21. Marielle
    Marielle on April 24, 2018 at 12:05 am

    My savior! Thanks a lot!

  22. Jessica
    Jessica on June 23, 2018 at 9:25 pm

    THANK YOU!!!!!!!! YOU ARE AN ANGEL!!

  23. Anne-Marie
    Anne-Marie on August 21, 2018 at 9:54 am

    Oh sweet lord and saviour! Thank you!!! Hours of agro avoided now!!

  24. radityobka
    radityobka on September 22, 2018 at 2:05 am

    Thank you so much, you are a life saver

  25. Suraj Thapa
    Suraj Thapa on October 13, 2018 at 6:01 am

    I am new in WordPress. A few days ago, it was very hard for me. I thought I need a plugin for this. Now, I learned from here. Right now, I am happy and it is the very easy thing. Thank you very much. You made my day.

  26. Mark P
    Mark P on April 11, 2019 at 2:46 pm

    This works great except when creating a bulleted list. While it single spaces the line, the bullet will not appear.

  27. Asad Meah
    Asad Meah on April 25, 2019 at 9:01 am

    Thank you. May you become a billionaire.

  28. Dan
    Dan on October 21, 2019 at 7:02 am

    Thanks Jamie, curse whoever at WordPress decided that a single press of the Enter key gives a double line. Be better the other way around! Thanks for the tip!

  29. Todd
    Todd on March 24, 2020 at 8:49 am

    Thanks!! Fantastic!!!

  30. Suman Singh
    Suman Singh on May 17, 2020 at 12:40 am

    Waw it’s amazing , it is working trick you are saved my many time.
    Thanks very much

  31. Katherine
    Katherine on June 24, 2020 at 6:23 pm

    THANK YOU!
    May you and your family be forever blessed for saving me a crying-fit-tantrum.

  32. Deli
    Deli on August 18, 2020 at 6:13 am

    Thank you! This has been really helpful. I was amazed how easy it was to remove that extra space between paragraphs 🙂

  33. Parinda
    Parinda on September 23, 2020 at 12:08 am

    After wasting about an hour trying random settings, I find this article. What a great tip!

    Thanks a lot Jamie.

  34. Mingle Campus
    Mingle Campus on November 20, 2020 at 8:17 pm

    Is it that much easy, have wasted lots of time in coding, Thanks

  35. Kevin M
    Kevin M on February 23, 2021 at 10:48 am

    I only edit my wife’s business page a few times a year. The extra space was always bugging us whenever I was updating her site. Thanks for your tip….so easy and yet so powerful! We will be happier with how the site looks now!

  36. Diane Steiger
    Diane Steiger on July 28, 2021 at 8:07 am

    A+ for Jamie! Best source for this much needed quick fix!

  37. Taiwo Akinsanmi
    Taiwo Akinsanmi on November 18, 2021 at 10:10 pm

    Thanks, you are a lifesaver.

  38. Kerstin Tenney
    Kerstin Tenney on December 29, 2021 at 2:23 pm

    Thank you SOOOOO much! You’ve saved me from so much frustration!!! 💛