When would someone use a soft return instead of a hard one?

[sheana]

I'm not grasping the concept of soft vs. hard returns and why someone would
choose one over the other. Could you please give an example? Thanks in
advance.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You don't "use" a "soft return," which is Word's natural word wrap at the
end of a line (which can be controlled somewhat with margin settings,
indents, and nonbreaking characters but otherwise not forced).

If you're referring to a line break (Shift+Enter), you use it any time you
want a new line but not a new paragraph. A good example of the use of this
is in typing poetry. The paragraph style used for the stanza can include
some Space Before/After (to allow extra space between stanzas), but the
stanza itself is single-spaced, so you insert a line break at the end of
each line (verse) and a paragraph break at the end of each stanza. Keeping
the stanza in a single paragraph also allows you to format the style, if
desired, as "Keep lines together" so it will stay together on one page.

 

[Klaus Linke]

If you're referring to a line break (Shift+Enter), you use it any

time you want a new line but not a new paragraph. A good example
of the use of this is in typing poetry. [...]

Another example are auto-numbered and auto-bulletted lists. Often you want a line break inside a long list entry, but not the number/bullet (and indent, space before/after...) associated with a new list paragraph.
A manual line break is the simplest solution, and probably covers the vast majority of times I use Shift+Enter.

Some people argue that a list continuation paragraph style is the "proper" way to do that, but I find this too dogmatic, and most times too much hassle. I also prefer to keep the list of styles short and easily manageable.

Klaus

 

[Chris Game]

a list continuation paragraph style is the "proper" way to do that

What's a 'list continuation paragraph style'?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If you look at Word's built-in styles, there are several series named List,
List Number, and List Bullet. Each of these styles begins with a flush-left
style with a quarter-inch hanging indent. Each successive style is indented
a quarter inch more (List Number 2, for example, has a quarter-inch left
indent and a half-inch hanging indent). The List Continue series has a left
indent to match the hanging indent on the corresponding List/List
Number/List Bullet style; you use that for an unnumbered/unbulleted text
paragraph that continues the content of the numbered/bulleted paragraph
above it.

 

[Chris Game]

If you look at Word's built-in styles, there are several series
named List, List Number, and List Bullet. Each of these styles
begins with a flush-left style with a quarter-inch hanging
indent. Each successive style is indented a quarter inch more
(List Number 2, for example, has a quarter-inch left indent and a
half-inch hanging indent). The List Continue series has a left
indent to match the hanging indent on the corresponding List/List
Number/List Bullet style; you use that for an
unnumbered/unbulleted text paragraph that continues the content
of the numbered/bulleted paragraph above it.

Thanks for the info!