What is the Rich Text Editor and how do I use it?

What is the Rich Text Editor and how do I use it?

Below is a description of the rich text editor as described by instructure.  We'd also like to add that the Rich Text editor uses web based formatting rather than traditional formatting when it comes to paragraph/line spacing. 

In standard word processing, hitting the enter key takes your cursor to the next line (single spaced typing).  In web page design, you want to hold down the shift key when hitting the enter (so, shift+enter), to obtain the single-spaced paragraph look.  Pressing enter is equivalent to starting a new paragraph and adds an extra blank space between the text (similar to double or 1.5 spacing in word processing).