Oh my god. The author who put a hard return at the end of every line e-mailed back and said -- I swear to you -- "I don't know what a paragraph return is. Please advise."

Wow. That's...wow.

I'd keep things as simple as possible and say "hit the enter key twice". And if he asks what the enter key is, punch him in the face.

Can you just ask him to make it more obvious where the paragraph breaks are in his manuscript?

Oh my god. The author who put a hard return at the end of every line e-mailed back and said -- I swear to you -- "I don't know what a paragraph return is. Please advise."

Wow. That's...wow.

I'd keep things as simple as possible and say "hit the enter key twice". And if he asks what the enter key is, punch him in the face.

That's what we finally decided on -- to ask the author to put extra returns in to separate the paragraphs. And then we'll run find/replace to take out single returns.

We're all just sitting here laughing in utter bogglement because none of us can figure out how to explain what a hard return is without going into a 3-page dissertation. ("Well, you know how when you're typing and the words appear on the screen and proceed toward the right side of the screen?")

It's the Enter key. I can see not knowing a different name for that, if that's not your business.

It's the Enter key. I can see not knowing a different name for that, if that's not your business.

But "hard return" is the term for hitting that key at the end of a line where you want a break to appear. Do people call it "hard enter"? (That's a serious question.) I don't know what else to call it.

I have made a haircut appointment and called to follow up on my tire repair. And dealt a little with crazy renter situation.

I have been dealing with crappy stuff all week, and I'd love to be done with it.

I'm a terrible formatter, but I feel better about myself now.

Do people call it "hard enter"?

No, but then again, I read all word documents with the hard returns showing and most people don't, so she can't see the paragraph marks anyway.

I'd use "enter" but it doesn't seem like she'd understand that either.

::waves pompoms at Nora::

::sighs::

::opens stupid cover letter.doc::

Do people call it "hard enter"?

Really? No one has commented on this yet? Y'all are disappointing me today. And, I are 12.

I'd use "enter" but it doesn't seem like she'd understand that either.

I guess I just don't know where to start explaining the issue to someone who thinks you're supposed to hit "enter" (or "return") when you get to the right-hand margin of every line.