Problem displaying multi-line text in block attribute

I have entered text in the block attribute field to describe each piece of equipment in a drawing.  I used the "\\P" (backslash,"P") embedded switch to create a new line in these equipment labels.  This worked fine in my prior session but now when I open the drawing the text attribute is displayed as a string all on one line with the "\\P" characters displayed as part of the text string.  If I edit an older version of the file in which all of the labels are displayed multi-line properly and copy and paste a figure with multi-line text attributes in the drawing, the pasted figure will then display the text in the label on a single line. In View-Display, Block attributes are set to normal.  I can't figure out how to work with and display the multi-line text properly again.  (Windows XP, DS ver 11.3.1131)