Hard return

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A hard return is a paragraph break in a word processor. It differs from a soft return in that it starts a new paragraph. Besides affecting the document statistics, this means that:

• Often, extra space and a first line indent will be inserted.
• The next line cannot become an orphan, nor the previous line a widow, if the word processor is set to control for this.

In most word processors, word wrap is handled automatically, meaning that manual soft returns are rarely if ever needed, so pressing Enter starts a new paragraph.