How to Wrap Text at a Chosen Line Width

Understand the wrapping options

Long lines can make notes, excerpts, and plain-text content harder to scan. Word Wrapper / Line Breaker arranges supplied text around a selected line width, helping you prepare content for a narrower or wider destination without changing its wording. Short passages may stay together, while longer passages can be returned across several lines.

The text is the primary input. You can also provide a width, an indent, and a preference for breaking long words. Hyphens can serve as possible division points during wrapping. The width rule depends on whether the text contains content: nonempty text uses 80 when the width is absent or falsy, while a supplied truthy width is converted to an integer and constrained from 10 through 500.

Empty text has a separate successful outcome. It produces empty wrapped text before width processing, so its returned width can retain the supplied value instead of becoming 80 or a constrained integer. Keep this distinction in mind when checking a result with no input.

Set the controls and run the tool

1. Provide the passage. Paste or type the content that needs reflowing. You may also leave the text empty when you want to confirm the empty-result behavior; the operation succeeds without requiring filler characters.

2. Set the width. With nonempty text, leave the width absent or falsy to use 80. For another target, supply a truthy value that can be converted to an integer. The effective value is limited to a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 500, so choose a number inside that range when the selected width should remain predictable.

3. Add an indent if needed. Provide a prefix when every output line should begin with one. The indent appears at the beginning of the first line and at the beginning of later lines created during wrapping.

4. Choose long-word handling. Long-word breaking starts enabled. Keep it enabled when an unbroken word may need to divide across lines, or turn it off when those words should remain intact. Hyphen breaking is enabled as well, giving hyphenated text another possible division point.

5. Run the operation and inspect the text. Compare the returned arrangement with the supplied passage. Check whether the content remains on one line,‌

Check what the returned text means

Read the returned text as a rearrangement of the supplied wording rather than as a rewritten passage. A sufficiently short input can remain on one line, whereas content that exceeds the effective width can produce multiple lines. The presence of several lines therefore reflects the relationship between the text and its effective width.

For nonempty text, a missing or falsy width resolves to 80. A truthy value is not necessarily kept numerically as entered: it undergoes integer conversion and then range constraints, so a value below 10 or above 500 can produce a different effective width. An indent appearing at the start of successive lines indicates that the prefix was applied during wrapping.

Long-word handling changes how an unbroken word may be divided, and hyphen breaking can influence where a line ends. Treat empty input separately because it returns empty wrapped text before width processing; its returned width may preserve the supplied value. Handling for a width that cannot be converted to an integer is not defined, so use a convertible value when you need an interpretable result.

If you also need consistent spacing around text after arranging its lines, Text Padding is

Worked example

You are preparing a short report note that needs narrower lines before you paste it into another text field.

Enter the text "Pack the signed report for review,", set the width to 20, add two spaces as the indent, and run the wrapper.

The returned object contains wrapped text and an effective width of 20; the two-space prefix appears at the start of the first line and later wrapped lines. The wrapped text is:

  Pack the signed
  report for review,

Limitations

• The defined width behavior does not establish an outcome for a supplied value that cannot be converted to an integer.

Common errors

• Assuming a small width stays unchanged: nonempty text constrains a truthy width below 10 to the minimum. Choose a value from 10 through 500 when the effective width needs to match your intended setting.

FAQ

What happens when the width is blank?

For nonempty text, an absent or falsy width uses 80. Empty text succeeds before width processing, so its returned width can retain the supplied value instead.

Can long words be divided?

Long-word breaking is enabled by default and can split an unbroken word during wrapping. Disable that setting when the word should remain intact in the returned text.

Can a hyphen affect a line break?

Hyphen breaking is enabled, allowing a hyphen to provide a possible division point as the supplied text is arranged into lines.