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?
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!
Yay!!! This also helped in Google’s Blogger — and those extra spaces had been driving me crazy. So, many thanks>
Sweet! So glad this helped, Daryl!!
:))
Thanks so much! Such a game changer 🙂
HUGE help to someone just getting started on wordpress! Thank you!
Awesome, glad to be of support, B!
I love you! Thanks!
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?
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!
You’re amazing! Saved me a LOT of frustration! Thank you!
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.
OMG, I love you! THANK YOU! 🙂
Perfect, just what I was looking for.
OMG! This has driven me crazy in ConvertKit. I can’t believe the solution was so simple. THANK YOU! 🙂
thank you so much!!! You just changed my life (haha. but, seriously).
thank you!!
That extra space was driving me nuts! Thank you so much. Something so simple. LOL
This just changed my world. Frustration monkey just jumped off my back
literally. Thank you Jamie
thank you so much.. didn’t know that it is as simple as that.. 🙂
Thanks. its very easy and clear
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 🙂
I love you, 20 minutes spent, copy, paste, enter, back, Word… thank you!
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!
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
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.
Hope this helps!
-Jamie
Thank you so much!
My savior! Thanks a lot!
THANK YOU!!!!!!!! YOU ARE AN ANGEL!!
Oh sweet lord and saviour! Thank you!!! Hours of agro avoided now!!
Thank you so much, you are a life saver
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.
This works great except when creating a bulleted list. While it single spaces the line, the bullet will not appear.
Thank you. May you become a billionaire.
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!
Thanks!! Fantastic!!!
Waw it’s amazing , it is working trick you are saved my many time.
Thanks very much
THANK YOU!
May you and your family be forever blessed for saving me a crying-fit-tantrum.
Thank you! This has been really helpful. I was amazed how easy it was to remove that extra space between paragraphs 🙂
After wasting about an hour trying random settings, I find this article. What a great tip!
Thanks a lot Jamie.
Is it that much easy, have wasted lots of time in coding, Thanks
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!
A+ for Jamie! Best source for this much needed quick fix!
Thanks, you are a lifesaver.
Thank you SOOOOO much! You’ve saved me from so much frustration!!! 💛