What is a hard return?

A “Hard Return” is placed into a word processing document when the “Enter” or “Return” key is pressed. It is most commonly used to separate paragraphs within a document. It is referred to as a “hard return” because it simulates a “carriage return” action used on typewriters to start a new line of text. In Microsoft Word and many other word processing programs, it will display as a character when hidden characters are displayed. To see this symbol, click on the button on the ¶ button in the Home tab of the toolbar. This will also display other “hidden characters” such as tab markers and spaces between words.