WordPress automatically inserts a blank line after you hit Return. I guess hitting Return to WordPress means you want to start a new paragraph and thus the app adds a blank line.
In the good old days of the classic editor, if I wanted to eliminate that blank line, say if I was writing what could only loosely be described as a poem, all I needed to do was switch to HTML mode in the app on my iPhone and delete the line between the sentences, thus achieving single-spacing in my published post. Easy peasy.
But since WordPress “decommissioned” the classic editor on its iOS app for the iPhone, the HTML code generated is a lot more complicated than it was in the classic editor. Each time you hit Return, the app creates a new paragraph block.
Here’s the poem as it appears using the paragraph block and hitting Return at the end of each line.
This a test
To see if I can figure out
How to single-space a line of text
Using the block editor
On my iPhone
Without having to use
The verse block.
Using the old Text tab in the classic editor on my laptop, here’s what the HTML looks like…
And to remove the extra line between sentences, all I needed to do was delete the spaces, so the updated HTML code look like this…
But the HTML code for this seven line “poem” above, using the paragraph block in the block editor on my iPhone looks like this…
Yikes! WTF?
So now, the only way I can figure out how to get my text to show single-spaced is by using the verse block, which looks like this…
This is a test
To see if I can figure out
How to single-space a line of text
Using the block editor
On my iPhone
Without having to use
The verse block.
Using the verse block is not terrible, but I prefer to look when I just have the lines of text appear in the body of the post and not inside a shaded block.
So here’s my question for you tech-savvy bloggers out there. If you are an iPhone user and you are using the WordPress iOS app for the iPhone, do you know how to single space your text after each Return without having to use the verse block?
Or am I SOL in the brave new world of the block editor?
This, That, and the Other 
when I want a single space, all I do is hit Control Enter to get this.
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That may work on a Windows laptop or a desktop, but not on a iPhone (there’s not CTRL key on its virtual keypad).
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Press shift+enter at the end of the line gives you the single line break you are looking for without having to use the “verse’ feature.
Unfortunately, if you copy/paste from MSWord it will automatically give you the paragraph spacing. Press delete at the end of a line to join then, place the cursor in the correct spot, then use ctrl+enter to create the single line break.
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Thanks for your suggestions, but while they might do the trick when using a laptop or a desktop computer, it doesn’t work in the block editor on an iPhone, which is the device I use almost exclusively for blogging.
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Okay. I don’t have an iPhone, but on my Android, At the top right of my WordPress App, next to ‘Publish’ is the three dot menu icon. I can use that to switch to Classic Editor where the Enter key works as it did before with the soft enter/single line break. Perhaps the iPhone has something similar?
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In the latest version of the iPhone iOS app, the ability to switch to the Classic Editor is no longer available. The only option anymore is the block editor.
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Good one! I’m eagerly awaiting the answer to this iPhone dilemma as well …
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The reason your html looks different is because you centered the verse. That’s why you have the the middle line of the three lines you see on the block editor.
The lines with the exclamation point (<!– ) are what is known as "commented out" and don't appear on the face of your post. Really only there for WordPress to acknowledge the block editor. A lot of wasted text as far as I'm concerned….
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Press shift and enter. No space. That was true before. It’s still true.
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Not on an iPhone. I tried it and it doesn’t work.
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Sorry if someone else already answered, but the HTML for a single-spaced poem es:
Line 1
Line2
etc
I prepare poetry in a text editor then copy/paste.
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oh it interpreter my markup.
Line 1. less than.
br.
greater than.
geddit?
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But in the block editor on my iPhone, each new line is considered to be a new paragraph block. But maybe I should try to use an external text editor and then copy and paste it into the block editor and see if that works.
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You have to “Edit as HTML”
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No advice but if you figure out how to size images, let me know
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I use an app called Resize It that I downloaded from the App Store. I can use that app to resize virtually any photo before I insert it into my post. It’s an extra step, but it works.
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Tha links for the info. In classic I have no problem with editing a photo and I use plenty of them. I can use block but the image thing is difficult
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Maybe your REAL problem is that you absolutely have to use the iPhone rather than something with a little bit more latitude — and a keyboard. A real keyboard. I couldn’t work on something that small. I could edit pictures. I can’t even SEE pictures on it.
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Well, I’m stubborn that way. Before WordPress shitcanned the classic editor from the iPhone app, there was virtually nothing that I could do on my laptop that I couldn’t do on my iPhone. But since the block editor, that is no longer the case. 😠
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On my computer, I hit shift return to single space. Is there such an option on a cellphone?
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Nope. Not on an iPhone in the block editor.
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This link doesn’t work on an iPhone? https://grieflessons.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post-new.php?classic-editor
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oops.. that is my link. You’d have to substitute the name of your own blog and erase mine.
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Since they took away the old classic editor, that link you sent with my own blog’s name doesn’t work very well on an iPhone, but the classic editor option in the WP iOS app worked fairly well until they took it away the classic editor option last week.
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I’m still using it on my Mac.
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I don’t even know how to get to any WP editor on my iPhone, so you are ahead of me there.
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😏
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When I tried the block editor, I faced this issue too.
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🙁
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You hold the shift key (up arrow on the left) + return simultaneously and a single line break happens. It took me a while to figure this out and perfect it, but it does work.
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I am talking about doing this on an iPhone SE.
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Are you using the WP iOS app on your iPhone or the classic editor in what used to be the wp-admin site?
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The latter. I deleted the app. I am now going to the site on my chrome browser… and I’ve begun using the block editor exclusively. I mostly blog from a laptop, but I still do some on my phone, which is how I discovered the line break solution.
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I tried that on my iPhone using the block editor, but even when I do that simultaneously, it opens up a new paragraph block.
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Grrrrrrr!
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I tried that and it didn’t work for me. 🤨
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Boo
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I don’t have an iPhone, and generally don’t post on my smart phone, but I have trouble with WPs inconsistency too. It looks as though you’ve got good Tech Support from the Blogging Team, so good luck!
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I saw an option for spacing. I have not tried it yet. but when I found the verse block I was happier.
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nope. didn’t work, so I searched and found this.
4 Answers. There is actually a way by using the microphone symbol on your keyboard and then saying “nieuwe regel”. … A soft line break is not supported by the iOS keyboard (nor, to my knowledge, by SwiftKey or Swype), but you can copy/paste an existing soft return from any other text.
https://apple.stackexchange.com › s…
“Soft Return” character (Shift-Enter) on iOS? – Ask Different
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Thanks. It sounds complicated. I guess I’ll just use the verse block
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not complicated
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What a brilliant solution. There –that didn’t hurt much, did it? Love this conversation, though. 👍
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I did it…..
Soccer tomorrow. hello.
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I did it, and reading the thread it’s what Mr Bump figured out.
Soccer tomorrow. hello.
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ha. it’s translating it here
‘
‘
Soccer tomorrow. hello.
‘
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‘
Soccer tomorrow. hello.
’
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delete these. i’ll send you an email.
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I didn’t even know there was a verse block… I have wondered if there was a way to lose the space.
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The verse block single spaces, but I don’t like the way it’s formatted, which is why I wanted to find a way to single space within the paragraph block.
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