Enter and return keys
key on computer keyboards for making a hard return or accepting a choice
On computer keyboards, the enter key ⌅ Enter and return key ↵ Return are two closely related keys with overlapping and distinct functions dependent on operating system and application.
Functions
The return key has its origins in two typewriter functions: carriage return, which would reset the carriage to the beginning of the line of text, and line feed, which would advance the paper one line downward. These were often combined into a single return key, a convention that continues in modern computer word processing to insert a paragraph break (¶).
The enter key is a computer innovation, which in most cases causes the active user interface to operate its default function.
For command lines, this is typically to execute the entered command.
For dialog boxes, it is an alternative to clicking the preselected button, usually an OK button.
For the address bar of a web browser or file manager, it is displaying the web page or folder that the typed address refers to.
For calculator programs, it is calculating the result of the typed expression.
On modern computers both keys generally have all the functions of the other, allowing for either key to be used, or even for them to be combined into a single key, as is the case with most laptops. Microsoft Windows makes no distinction between them whatsoever, and usually both keys are labelled as enter on Windows keyboards with the United States layout.
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This entry incorporates text from “Enter and return keys” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.