Don’t ask me how I stumbled across this one. It was so long ago that I can’t remember what I was doing to try this. I can remember it being somewhat serendipitous in the fact that it happened naturally, like, this key combo should produce this result. I needed an extra line in my parameter, so I did it. Isn’t it amazing how some of the biggest tips have the smallest amount of explanation?

To create multi-line text fields out of your parameters that are of the normal “Text” type, simply type Shift + Enter.  This will create a carriage return to another line.  There’s really no good way o show this in pictures, so you’re going to have to just try it (or watch the video!).  Now, you can’t just get all crazy with the Shift+Enter and do it anywhere you please, no.  You will need a schedule to do this properly.  So your parameter has to be something that is schedulable (this means shared parameters for those of you doing this with families, ie: Titleblocks).

You’ll run into some  frustration when you are dealing with parameters that you have done this to, as pressing the down arrow will  make it appear as though you are scrolling through parameter values when you may actually be scrolling through lines of text in a single parameter value.  Also, you will notice that you may et an error about having certain symbols in your parameter values.  This usually only happens on certain labels that are hard coded into the families (ie: titleblocks).  It doesn’t like the “\r” that is returned because ‘\’ is a non allowable symbol.  You can’t see the ‘\r’ but it’s there, I promise!

Give it a shot!  Hope you enjoyed, and I will see you next time for another, Revit TotD!

EDIT:  I just noticed while watching the video that there is a new behavior in 2010 that was not present before.  In the past you were able to select between different Multi-Line parameters after you had placed them (from the combobox), but now if you try selecting a multi-line it will only give you the line you selected instead of the entire multi-line value.  While this makes this tip a little less valuable in parametrics, it is still just as useful in most of its uses!

As always, you can enjoy this tip in its full pic and video glory at: http://revittotd.com/07/527

-Carl