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Every time I want to write on a new line I press Shift+Enter. In the Editor it goes to new line, but on the Preview it stays on the same line.

So I have to make 2 new lines in order to get some separation.

Why can't I just make a new line without having a whole other blank line in between?

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To add a single newline, you have to append two spaces to the end of the line and then press Enter. Then on the preview, it will appear as a single newline.

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  • and how is a person supposed to know that, by reading some special documentations? this is lame, Shift+Enter should just make a new line as it is supposed to
    – Borislav
    Commented Jun 25, 2015 at 8:32
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    @Borislav: Where is Shift-Enter documented as a standard for inserting a line break? That's not a convention that I know of. Markdown is clearly documented and used not just at Stack Exchange, but also at GitHub and elsewhere. The Markdown convention is to treat two spaces at the end of a line as a line break, a blank line between text as a paragraph break.
    – Martijn Pieters
    Commented Jun 25, 2015 at 8:33
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    @Borislav So StackExchange shouldn't use Markdown - a pretty common syntax - just because you don't want to read up how to use it?
    – JonW
    Commented Jun 25, 2015 at 8:37
  • Well excuse me, but all my life, while working with all kinds of software, Shift+Enter was always doing only one thing - make a new line. But if you insist on that being dumb or something, ok then
    – Borislav
    Commented Jun 25, 2015 at 8:39
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    @Borislav: I didn't say it is dumb or something. But take into account that a convention you are used to may be limited to a specific ecosystem, and not be universal. Whenever you come across something that feels strange like this, try and do a bit of research to find out if that is the case. I found What is the best combination of shortcuts for sending text message and breaking line?
    – Martijn Pieters
    Commented Jun 25, 2015 at 8:50
  • @Borislav: The editor does do something different on Shift-Enter; it inserts a newline and indents the line. I use this when editing a code block. Personally, I use that a lot more than use single line breaks (I find I rarely need those in my own posts).
    – Martijn Pieters
    Commented Jun 25, 2015 at 8:52
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    @Borislav: last but not least, Shift-Enter to insert a newline is usually used in contexts where an unqualified Enter (so without Shift) would be a very different action, like submitting a comment. And indeed, when entering a comment here, Shift-Enter inserts a newline, while an unqualified Enter submits the comment.
    – Martijn Pieters
    Commented Jun 25, 2015 at 8:53
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    @MartijnPieters true but new line is meaningless in comments (it just becomes a blank space)
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Jun 25, 2015 at 12:35
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    @ShadowWizard: I didn't say it was useful :-P Just that behaviour does change when using shift.
    – Martijn Pieters
    Commented Jun 25, 2015 at 12:37
  • @Borislav "and how is a person supposed to know that" I understand your frustration of "not knowing something when you need to", but that's pretty much the same for everything in life - usage requires knowledge. The site has posts where you can enter text and post it for others to see. If you need to know how to use that post area, you need to read about it. There is no uniformed functionality for every website on the internet, they all require different learning to use them. Stack is no different, and once you know the small differences of markdown you will find it easy.
    – James
    Commented Jun 25, 2015 at 13:04

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