paragraphs in Messages

[Doug Lass]

OK, here's something aggravating. When I use Messages on my computer to write a text, I am UNABLE to produce a second paragraph. Why? Because as soon as you hit RETURN, kaboom, the message sends. Rather oddly, on the iPhone massage app, it's easy to make paragraphs. The Return key does a line feed, and the up-arrow sends the test. Is there a workaround for this? How can I create a multi-paragraph Message on my Mac?

I tend to use my computer to do messaging, just because the keyboard on an iPhone is inconveniently small.

 

[Slix]

You can press Option+Return on the Mac to make a new line without sending the message.

 

[Doug Lass]

Ah, marvelous. Thank you! Now, why in the world can't the Messages application on the Mac have a little up-arrow you click on to send, like the iPhone?

 

[MacCheetah3]

Or Shift-Return.

You can find that and others:

Keyboard shortcuts in Messages on Mac

In Messages on your Mac, use keyboard shortcuts to quickly accomplish many common tasks.

support.apple.com

 

[Doug Lass]

Indeed. Nice to know. Thanks. Still unclear why the Mac Messages app doesn't just have a little up-arrow to send like iOS.

 

[MacCheetah3]

Seemingly a (UX) design choice. Mac OS/macOS has always(?) had an emphasis on the keyboard, namely keyboard shortcuts — even more so than most other OSs. As part of that, Return/Enter is the go to for submit action, accept/OK, next, etc. On iOS, and other touch-based GUI/UX in my experience, actions are foremost linked to buttons. Additionally, most of the buttons are fairly easily — for perhaps lack of a better word — undoable because it’s presumed/known the user is likely to make more mistakes. Therefore, there are fewer and (hopefully) more obvious (e.g., blue filled circle Send button) buttons that execute the most substantial/permanent actions. In other words, whether dual thumb or chicken pecking on the keyboard, you’ll probably inadvertently touch a wrong button err key, and correcting an accidental line break (i.e., not converting Return/Enter into Send) is much easier and (presumably) less problematic than unending or editing the message.

I hope that makes sense.

 

[Doug Lass]

Yes, sounds sensible. It is annoying, though, when you want to just do a line feed in Messages, and you end up shooting the message out.