Whether you're using mouse-based or keyboard-based applications, you'll use the keyboard to type your documents. In general, the main part of the keyboard works like the keyboard on a typewriter, and the built-in numeric keypad works like the keys on an adding machine; but there are a few things you should know about the keys on the keyboard.

In word processing applications, when you reach the end of a line of text, the insertion point moves to the next line automatically. You use Return only when you want to start a new paragraph. If you press Return instead of letting the application handle line breaks, you interfere with the application's ability to rearrange the word on a line after you make changes.

If you discover that you've pressed Return by accident, you can delete the extra Return character the same way you delete any other character, even though the Return character is invisible! How do you know it's there if it's invisible? You know it's there if your lines break in funny places after you make changes to a paragraph. (See Figure 3-15.)

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Chapter 3: The Mouse and the Keyboard