Return, join, and split

The return key either makes a new thing or a new line, and join and split fix the results either way.

Why you'd care#

Text arrives in the wrong shape constantly. You paste eight lines and get one thing. You write one long thing that was really three. Join and split are the repair tools, and they are much faster than retyping.

The return key#

By default, pressing return ends the thing and starts a new one. The alternative is a line break inside the same thing.

Neither is wrong, and it surprises people either way, so it is a setting rather than a fixed behaviour.

Join#

Select several things and press ⌘J. NewTwos asks what to put between them: a comma, a space, a full stop, a new line, or something you type.

Things from other lists are skipped rather than silently dragged in, and you are told which.

Split#

Press ⌘⇧J to break one thing into several. You choose the separator, and only separators that actually occur in the selection are offered, so you can never open a picker where every option would do nothing.

Splitting also works on photos, separating a multi-photo thing into one per image.

Going further#

Pasting offers to split for you. Paste several lines and NewTwos asks whether to make one thing or one per line. That is the fastest way to bring a list in from a message.

Join is the cleanup for voice. Dictation sometimes fragments a sentence. Selecting the fragments and joining with a space repairs it in one action.

Tips#

• Join with a new line rather than a comma when the parts are genuinely separate ideas you want kept together.
• If you find yourself splitting constantly, the return-key setting is probably backwards for how you write.

Related#

• Select many things at once, since both commands work on selections
• The capture bar