Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, and 2013. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Removing Breaks.

Removing Breaks

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 15, 2021)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, and 2013


Breaks are used quite often in a document to disrupt the normal contiguous flow of text. If you are in Draft view, breaks appear as lines extending the full width of your document window. The type of break is denoted by text in the middle of the line. For instance, column breaks appear as a thin dotted line, with the text "Column Break" in the middle of the dotted line.

Breaks are treated like any other characters in Word. If you want to delete a break, simply position the insertion point on the break and use any of the normal editing keys to delete it. Perhaps the quickest way to remove a break is to position the insertion point on the break and press the Del key.

If you are not working in Draft view, you may want to switch to that viewing mode. It is easier to edit many special characters (such as breaks) if you work in Draft view.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (9321) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, and 2013. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Removing Breaks.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Turning Off Speech Capabilities

Excel can talk to you, reading back whatever you enter into a cell. If you want to turn this capability off, you'll want ...

Discover More

Finding and Deleting Rows

Got a table that contains rows you want to delete? Deleting one or two rows in a table is easy; deleting a bunch of rows ...

Discover More

Establishing a FLOOR and CEILING

Excel includes a surprising number of functions you can use to round your data. Two such functions are FLOOR and CEILING, ...

Discover More

Do More in Less Time! An easy-to-understand guide to the more advanced features available in the Microsoft 365 version of Word. Enhance the quality of your documents and boost productivity in any field with this in-depth resource. Complete your Word-related tasks more efficiently as you unlock lesser-known tools and learn to quickly access the features you need. Check out Microsoft 365 Word For Professionals For Dummies today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Selecting a Word

Selecting text is a critical skill to possess when you want to work with a Word document. This tip explains how you can ...

Discover More

Turning Off Automatic Capitalization in Lists

By default, Word capitalizes letters that it thinks designate the beginning of a sentence. This includes at the beginning ...

Discover More

Inserting a Bullet

Need to place a bullet in the middle of a sentence? There are a couple of easy ways you can do this, as described in this ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is six minus 3?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.