how do I insert line breaks in instructional text
Asked by Pam Ault:

I would like to insert line breaks in my template's instructional text. I've read that Shift+Enter should do the trick, and it does when I am editing the template - but when I save my changes I lose the line breaks. Hoping it was a browser-specific issue I have tried on Chrome/Mac, Chrome/Windows, Safari, and IE11 - no luck!

Any suggestions?


Answers:
author: augomat
body: EDITED: Sry - meant to reply to Diego above.

---

Hi [@Diego](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1188952) ,

thanks for posting the clarification.

But imho, this is still a shame :( Confluence is awesome in principle, but how often does Atlassian just not get the basics right because people don't complain enough about it? This has been extremely frustrating over all the years.

It should be absolutely obvious that you want to explain stuff in your instructional text such that all writers can comply with the idea of what should really go into a section/heading (which is usually much more complicated than just 'surname' or 'address'). And good explanations need format - at the very least line breaks .

<https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFSERVER-32700>is the corresponding JIRA issue closed as won't fix because it is 'not meant' to have line breaks. I wonder from which sane knowledge management principle this is meant to not possess any structure.


author: Diego
body: Hello there! After reading the thread I understand that text that contains line breaks inserted using Shift+Enter do not keep the formatting after page publish.

There is an update that I believe is needed within the thread itself.

One bit that needs an update is the "*Instructional Text* " part. As of today, this is now called "*Placeholder Text*". You can select it via two methods:

**Method 01:**
> 1. *Type / to bring the macro search
>    ![Screen Shot 2020-07-02 at 14.24.42.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/101509i94FB83B1E402B09F/image-dimensions/181x190?v=v2 "Screen Shot 2020-07-02 at 14.24.42.png")*
> 2. *Type placeholder*
> 3. *Select the Placeholder macro*

**Method 02:**
> 1. *Click the Insert option at the toolbar
>    ![Screen Shot 2020-07-02 at 14.36.48.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/101510i4A5D392DA8490CE1/image-dimensions/102x361?v=v2 "Screen Shot 2020-07-02 at 14.36.48.png")*
> 2. *Select Placeholder text*

As explained early in the thread, Shift + Enter does not work with Placeholder Text. As soon as Enter is pressed, the Placeholder Text is inserted into the page.

*The solution is to placer multiple Placeholder Text, one under the other, simulating line breaks:*
> *![Screen Shot 2020-07-02 at 14.25.19.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/101508iBD299757CBE67978/image-dimensions/185x217?v=v2 "Screen Shot 2020-07-02 at 14.25.19.png")*

You can check more details on Template creation here:
> * ++***[\[Confluence Cloud\] Create a template](https://support.atlassian.com/confluence-cloud/docs/create-a-template/)***++

For **Confluence Server** this is still called "*Instructional Text*" and does not support line breaks as well.
> ![Screen Shot 2020-07-02 at 14.43.39.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/101511i4A62A4B098378AD2/image-dimensions/529x142?v=v2 "Screen Shot 2020-07-02 at 14.43.39.png")

The workaround is the same, place multiple Instructional Texts one under the other to simulate line breaks.   
While editing the template, the line breaks will display as expected, however, after saving the template the text will be displayed all within the same line.

You can check more details on the creation of templates for Confluence Server here:
> * [++***\[Confluence Server\] Create a template***++](https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/create-a-template-296093779.html)

I hope this clarifies this behavior for anyone looking at this thread today!


author: Darryl St_ Pierre
body: [@Pam Ault](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1162730) - new editor or classic (old)?

I just created a test page with both editors using numbered bullets with three blank lines between each with \<shift\>\<Enter\>

comments: author: Darryl St_ Pierre
body: Sorry, just noticed "template". Back to the testing board...


author: Darryl St_ Pierre
body: And.... just created a template the same way, and got the same results.

Using Chrome on Windows 10 if it matters. Have found that IE/Edge don't play well with Confluence, and just the other day discovered Create from Macro buttons don't work in Firefox...


author: Pam Ault
body: This didn't work for me unfortunately. The line breaks display in edit mode, but when I save and go back to edit mode, they disappear.


author: Darryl St_ Pierre
body: Sorry to hear. Given the lack of activity on this thread, you may want to log an issue with Support. Hopefully they can help you out, submit a bug if it's a problem, or direct you to submit an enhancement request if it's not current functionality.


author: DPKJ
body: [@Pam Ault](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1162730)this is not possible.

A workaround can be to insert multiple block of instructional text one below another.


Tags: confluence-cloud