# Automatic Paragraph Spacing

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automatic-paragraph-spacing/839591>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [September 2, 2019, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automatic-paragraph-spacing/839591 "2019-09-02T16:14:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 10\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2019, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automatic-paragraph-spacing/839591/21 "2019-09-30T04:26:11Z")

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_sigh_ All right, now I’m starting to suspect this is a Firefox problem, not a board problem. I just commented on a YouTube video, and it put an extra line between my paragraphs there.  
None of my Firefox plugins have anything to do with text/editing.

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**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2019, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automatic-paragraph-spacing/839591/22 "2019-09-30T15:31:29Z")

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I can test that. (No extra line return after this.)

On Firefox for Android (Extra line return after this.)  
Test.

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**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2019, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automatic-paragraph-spacing/839591/23 "2019-09-30T15:32:40Z")

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I can test that. (No extra line return after this.)  
On Chrome for Android (Extra line return after this.)

Test.

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**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2019, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automatic-paragraph-spacing/839591/24 "2019-09-30T15:34:08Z")

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I post from my Windows 10 PC, not from my phone.

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**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2019, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automatic-paragraph-spacing/839591/25 "2019-09-30T15:34:57Z")

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Yep. Extra lines inserted on Firefox, not on Chrome. (I have the line issue with Firefox on Windows, don’t use Chrome on Windows.)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2019, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automatic-paragraph-spacing/839591/26 "2019-09-30T16:56:21Z")

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So, given that I’ve seen this with Firefox both here and on YouTube, but not on other sites and forums where I post frequently, I’m guessing that both vBulletin and whatever YouTube uses for comments have some quirk that, for whatever reason, Firefox doesn’t handle “correctly”. And it seems to be a recent development, as I’ve posted here since 2003, and had used Firefox as my primary browser for a while without seeing this issue (although, granted, that was on a Mac - I’ve only been a primary Windows user since March 2018).

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**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\
**Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automatic-paragraph-spacing/839591/27 "2019-10-01T01:06:41Z")

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Try this for me:

When you’re on a page on the Dope where you plan to enter text, open up the console by pressing Ctrl-Shift-K. Make sure you are on the Console tab, and type in the following, and press enter:

```auto

document.execCommand("insertBrOnReturn", false, true);

```

See if that stops from entering an extra line. This is mostly for my curiosity, and also maybe something I could add to my tweaking script.

As for a more practical workaround if you don’t use my script, you can also try pressing Shift-Enter when you want to only return one line. That usually works in most editors that give you two lines.

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**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2019, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automatic-paragraph-spacing/839591/28 "2019-10-04T00:07:31Z")

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Okay, tried that. Let’s see what happens.  
Test  
Test

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2019, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automatic-paragraph-spacing/839591/29 "2019-10-04T00:08:37Z")

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Test  
Test  
Test

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2019, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/automatic-paragraph-spacing/839591/30 "2019-10-04T00:10:04Z")

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The goggles, zey do nothink!  
No change.

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