How to Add a Line Break in WordPress (New Line Spacing)

Ever notice how some websites have perfectly spaced content that’s easy to scan, while others feel cramped and hard to read?

The secret often comes down to something simple: using new lines and spacing effectively.

If you’ve ever added line breaks in your WordPress editor only to find they don’t show up on your published page, you’re definitely not alone. WordPress handles spacing a bit differently than word processors like Google Docs or Microsoft Word.

Once you understand how it works, though, you’ll have complete control over how your content looks.

We’ll show you several reliable methods to add line breaks in WordPress, from quick keyboard shortcuts to more advanced formatting options.

Let’s start with the easiest ways to add a line break.

Why Add a Line Break in WordPress (New Line Spacing)?

At first glance, a line break might seem like a small formatting choice—but it can have a big impact on how your content performs.

From improving readability to boosting user experience, adding proper spacing helps your pages look clean and professional. Here’s why it matters:

• Better readability: Breaks up walls of text for easier scanning.
• Mobile-friendly: Keeps content clear on smaller screens.
• Fixes pasted text: Cleans up formatting from other sources.
• Draws attention: Helps tips and CTAs stand out.

In short, line breaks make your content easier to read and more engaging—both for visitors and search engines.

Having said that, let’s take a look at how to easily add a line break in WordPress.

How to Add a Line Break in WordPress (Quick Methods)

In WordPress , you can easily add line breaks using your keyboard. To create a double line space (new paragraph), simply press the Enter key (or Return on Mac).

For a single line space within the same paragraph, hold Shift + Enter (or Shift + Return on Mac). These are the quickest ways to control spacing in the block editor.

How to Add a New Paragraph (Default Spacing)

When you press the Enter key (Windows) or Return key (Mac) on your keyboard, you are creating what’s often referred to as a “hard return” or a new paragraph break.

WordPress creates a new paragraph. By default, your theme adds some vertical space between paragraphs, which helps separate your thoughts and make content easier to read.

The exact amount of this spacing is controlled by your theme’s design.

Simply go to the content editor, press the Enter or Return key after the line, and then type something else in the next line.

By simply doing that, based on your theme styling, you should see a clear distinction between paragraphs.

How to Add a Single Line Space (Soft Return / Line Break within Paragraph)

Now, if you are writing something like an address or a poem and want a single-spaced line break without starting a new paragraph, you’ll need to use a “soft return.”

In this case, you need to press the SHIFT + ENTER key on Windows or the SHIFT + RETURN key on Mac.

This tells WordPress you want to start a new line but keep it part of the same paragraph.

This action creates a “soft return” or single line break (using an HTML <br> tag), which means there won’t be the extra vertical space you get with a new paragraph.

It is a userful method for cleaning up text pasted from other sources that might have excessive double line breaks; simply delete the extra paragraph breaks and re-insert single line breaks with Shift + Enter as needed.

Adding Custom Vertical Space with the Spacer Block

For a simple, no-code way to add extra space between any two blocks, using the built-in Spacer block is a highly intuitive method. It offers precise visual control directly within the editor.

Simply click the ‘Add Block’ button in the editor to add a new block and search for ‘Spacer’. Once you add it, a new empty space will appear on your page.

You can then click on the spacer and drag the blue handle up or down to adjust its height.

This gives you precise control over your vertical spacing right inside the editor.

Adjusting Default Line Height and Paragraph Spacing

Sometimes, even when you add the proper line spacing in the editor, it doesn’t display the way you want it to in your theme.

There are two ways to fix it:

1. Using a plugin (the easy way)
2. Manually with CSS code (more advanced)

Let’s take a look at the easy method first.

Adding Line Spacing Using a Plugin

If you want to make style changes to your theme without having to learn code, using a plugin like CSS Hero is a great way to do that. This is because the plugin is trusted by over 100,000 websites for its intuitive visual editor.

CSS Hero is specifically designed for beginners and non-coders, allowing you to visually change your WordPress site’s design with a few clicks – a feature highly praised in its 4.8/5-star average rating.

You can see more details in our full CSS Hero review.

For more extensive structural changes to your theme, such as moving a sidebar or adding a footer, a drag-and-drop page builder plugin offers more comprehensive visual control and dedicated tools. This makes it a more suitable option for those tasks.

Don’t want to use a plugin, or just need to make this one change? Then, the manual CSS code option might be best for you.

Changing Paragraph Spacing Manually With CSS Code

To add line breaks manually without a plugin, you need to add some CSS to your theme.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is a language that tells web browsers how to display your website’s content.

Think of it as a set of instructions for styling, rather than clicking buttons like in Microsoft Word. It’s not as scary as it sounds and is quite easy to understand once you grasp the basics.

To add custom CSS to your theme, you need to visit the Appearance » Customize page. This will launch the WordPress theme customizer, where you need to click on the ‘Additional CSS’ tab from the left column.

If you can’t see these menu options, then you might be using a block theme. Please see our article on how to fix missing theme customizer in WordPress admin.

In the custom CSS box, you need to add the following CSS code:

.post p{line-height: 1.5em;}

This rule increases the space between lines inside each paragraph, making your content easier to read.

Keep in mind that this code assumes your theme uses .post for blog content. If nothing changes after adding it, try replacing .post with .entry-content instead.

If you’re not sure which one your theme uses, you can check by opening a blog post, right-clicking inside the text, and selecting Inspect. Then, look for the main content wrapper class (such as .post or .entry-content).

Note that this line-height property only adjusts the vertical space between lines of text within each paragraph, not the space between entire paragraphs.

If you want to increase the vertical space between paragraphs in WordPress, you would typically add a padding-bottom to your paragraph elements.

.post p { 
line-height: 1.5em;
padding-bottom: 15px;
} 

Feel free to adjust the numbers in this CSS code. Changing the padding-bottom value will change the space between your paragraphs.

You can also add custom CSS to your site using the WPCode plugin. It is used by over 1.5 million websites and boasts a 4.9/5-star rating on WordPress.org for making code insertion super easy.

For more details, please see our guide on how to add custom CSS to your WordPress site.

If you don’t like reading the instructions, then just watch our video tutorial.

Video Tutorial

For a visual walkthrough, you can watch our video tutorial below. It covers all the methods we’ve discussed for adding single and double line spacing in your content.

Frequently Asked Questions About Adding a Line Break in WordPress

Here are some questions that our readers have frequently asked about adding a line break in WordPress:

How to make 1.15 line spacing in WordPress?

You can set 1.15 line spacing by adding custom CSS to your child theme or using a code snippets plugin like WPCode. For example, use line-height: 1.15; for the text elements you want to adjust.

This gives you precise control since WordPress doesn’t include this option by default.

Is 1.5 and 1.15 line spacing the same?

No, 1.5 and 1.15 spacing are different. A 1.5 line height creates much more space between lines, while 1.15 keeps the text tighter and more compact.

How to add custom line spacing in WordPress?

You can add custom line spacing using CSS or a block editor setting. In most cases, adding a line-height value in your theme customizer or a CSS plugin is the easiest method.

What is the difference between a separator and a line break in WordPress?

A separator adds a visible line or space between sections, while a line break simply moves text to the next line without adding extra visual elements.

How to fix unwanted line breaks in WordPress titles?

Sometimes your WordPress post or page title may break onto multiple lines in an awkward way. This usually depends on your theme and the available space in the title area.

In most cases, WordPress automatically wraps long titles to fit the layout. However, if you want more control, you can adjust it using CSS.

For example, you can prevent title line breaks by adding:

.entry-title {  white-space: nowrap;}

This will keep the title on a single line, but be careful — very long titles may overflow on smaller screens. A better approach is usually to shorten the title or adjust your theme’s typography settings instead of forcing it into one line.

We hope this article helped you add a line break in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to use WordPress block pattern and our list of the best Gutenberg friendly WordPress themes.

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