Different ways to create a line break in Typinator

Typinator is a powerful text expansion tool that allows users to create custom abbreviations for frequently used phrases, paragraphs, or other text snippets. Line breaks are often necessary to format text properly, especially when creating templates or expanding snippets. Depending on the app where the abbreviation is expanded, line breaks can be interpreted in different ways. Therefore, Typinator offers diverse options to create a line break.

To easily visualize line breaks in Typinator, please activate the Paragraph Icon in the editor view.

Typinator toolbar icons on macOS showing script snippet, plain text snippet, and formatting marker symbols — interface detail for managing text expansion types.

Simple line break

Simply pressing the Return or Enter key will insert a line break in Typinator. This is the most basic way to create a line break. Some apps need two line breaks to visualize a simple line break correctly.

Screenshot of a text editor set to ‘Plain Text’ showing formatting marks. The text demonstrates line breaks: ‘This is a simple line break.’ followed by a new line ‘This is a new line.’ and a section explaining that some applications require two line breaks to display an empty line between paragraphs.

Insert line break as key {return}

Typinator supports an option to insert keys via the menu. If you press enter in this view you will get a '{return}' in the expansion editor. Sometimes applications interpret this differently from using a simple enter.

Example of a Typinator snippet containing a simple line break command using {return} on macOS — demonstrates how to insert line breaks in text expansion shortcuts.

Typinator snippet editor on macOS showing the insertion menu with the ‘Key…’ option highlighted — used to add special keystrokes like Return or Tab in text expansions.

Shift + Enter to create a soft break

Typinator allows you to insert a soft line break by pressing Shift + Enter. These key combination inserts a soft line break character directly into your expansion. It will depend on the application if it can interpret this correctly as a soft line break.

Screenshot of a text editor in ‘Plain Text’ mode with formatting marks visible. The text demonstrates a Shift+Enter line break: the sentence ‘This is a shift + enter line break.’ is followed by a line break symbol and continues on the next line with the same sentence.

Option + Enter creates a non-expanding line break

Sometimes it is useful to add a line break in your expansion in Typinator to make the expansion easier edit in Typinator, but you don't want to have the line break in your expansion. Then you can use a non-expanding line break. You can trigger this with Option + Enter.

Simple line break

Insert line break as key {return}

Shift + Enter to create a soft break

Option + Enter creates a non-expanding line break

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