7.7 Blank Lines

Here are special commands and techniques for inserting and deleting blank lines.

C-o

Insert a blank line after the cursor ( open-line).

C-x C-o

Delete all but one of many consecutive blank lines ( delete-blank-lines).

We have seen how RET ( newline) starts a new line of text. However, it may be easier to see what you are doing if you first make a blank line and then insert the desired text into it. This is easy to do using the key C-o ( open-line), which inserts a newline after point but leaves point in front of the newline. After C-o, type the text for the new line.

You can make several blank lines by typing C-o several times, or by giving it a numeric argument specifying how many blank lines to make. See Numeric Arguments, for how. If you have a fill prefix, the C-o command inserts the fill prefix on the new line, if typed at the beginning of a line. See The Fill Prefix.

The easy way to get rid of extra blank lines is with the command C-x C-o ( delete-blank-lines). If point lies within a run of several blank lines, C-x C-o deletes all but one of them. If point is on a single blank line, C-x C-o deletes it. If point is on a nonblank line, C-x C-o deletes all following blank lines, if any exists.