I've got so used to using visual-line-mode in Emacs that I sometimes need reminding there are other ways of setting out work.  Well, that's what the Emacs Work-Out is all about... visual-line-mode wraps words at the boundaries of the editor, rather like a word processor does. This can sometimes be a nuisance, particularly when embedding source code in documents. One solution is to go back to using fill-paragraph. I'm going to set the fill column to 50, for no good reason. **C-x f 50** Set fill column to 50 Now write or copy some text into Emacs. I'm going to use this paragraph. When I finish typing this sentence I hit **M-q** right about now... ..and the paragraph is automatically wrapped at the extent of the fill column. You'll notice I didn't hit **M-q** for this paragraph. What about all those extra carriage returns that get added? Well, if they bother you that much you can [use this function and key definition written by Stefan Monnier to unfill-paragraph_.](http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/UnfillParagraph) The chances are, however you won't need it very often. Most of the stuff I write is exported using org-export before it's published (see [My Emacs Writing Setup](http://www.tonyballantyne.com/EmacsWritingTips.html) for more details) Export ignores single returns so a b c becomes a b c on export. In other words, filled paragraphs are exported as, well, paragraphs. If you can't be bothered hitting **M-q** all the time, try setting **auto-fill-mode** or **refill-mode**. Don't forget you can use **whitespace-mod**e to see non-printing characters and get a better idea of what's going on. **M-x refill-mode** **M-x whitespace-mode** Fill prefixes are an old fashioned method of ;; writing comments in code. I've set a fill ;; prefix of ;; on this paragraph and hit M-q. ;; Note how the first line isn't prefixed **C-x .** Set fill prefix as text up to the point. **C-o** Add fill prefix to line Lastly, you can left, right, fully and centre justify paragraphs, rather like this, if you really see the need. **M-x set-justification-full** **M-x set-justification-left** **M-x set-justification-center** **M-x set-justification-right** **M-x set-justification-none**