Editing Paragraph (section)

==In computing==
{{See also|Newline}}
In [[word processing]] and [[desktop publishing]], a '''hard return''' or '''paragraph break''' indicates a new paragraph, to be distinguished from the '''soft return''' at the end of a line internal to a paragraph. This distinction allows [[word wrap]] to automatically re-flow text as it is edited, without losing paragraph breaks. The software may apply vertical white space or indenting at paragraph breaks, depending on the selected style.

How such documents are actually stored depends on the [[file format]]. For example, [[HTML]] uses the &lt;p&gt; tag as a paragraph container. In [[plaintext]] files, there are two common formats. The pre-formatted text will have a [[newline]] at the end of every physical line, and two newlines at the end of a paragraph, creating a blank line. An alternative is to only put newlines at the end of each paragraph, and leave word wrapping up to the application that displays or processes the text.

A line break that is inserted manually, and preserved when re-flowing, may still be distinct from a paragraph break, although this is typically not done in [[prose]]. [[HTML]]'s &lt;br&nbsp;/&gt; tag produces a line break without ending the paragraph; the [[W3C]] recommends using it only to separate lines of verse (where each "paragraph" is a [[stanza]]), or in a [[street address]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.w3.org/wiki/HTML/Elements/br|title=<nowiki><br></nowiki>: The Line Break element|website=MDN Web Docs|access-date=15 March 2018}}</ref>