Word space between line

Reducing the line spacing or vertical gap between lines in Word paragraphs can be done in six different ways depending on your needs.

Adjusting line spacing to put lines very close isn’t usually necessary for regular text.  It becomes useful when trying some design tricks for headings, for example the title in our Millennium poster.

Here’s an example of standard line spacing (left) and very close spacing (right).

The left example has selected the top line.  Selecting a line shows the amount of space Word has allocated above and below the line.  That’s a clue to what needs adjustment.

There’s no one setting to check. Instead a few options to try and adjust until you get what you want.

Paragraph Break vs Line Break

A simple way to reduce the line spacing is to switch from the usual Paragraph Break (pressing Enter) for a Line Break (Shift + Enter)

A Line Break will usually make a smaller gap between two lines.

Turn ‘Show all’ on (Home | Paragraph | Show All) to see both Paragraph marks (the reverse P or pilcrow, left) and line breaks (angled arrow, right).

Change line space before/after

Open the paragraph spacing dialog from the little button at bottom right of the Paragraph section of the ribbon.

Check the Spacing, Before or After settings.

Maybe all you need to do is reduce one or both of those.

Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style

Just below those choices is “Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style”.

Checking that box will remove the before and after spacing, assuming both lines have the same style.

Less than single line space

If those options don’t work, it’s time to break out the major nerd tricks. Reducing below single line spacing.

To set less than 1 line space go to Paragraph | Line Spacing and choose ‘Multiple’ – yes ‘Multiple’.  Sounds screwy but it works.

Set the Multiple line spacing value to less than one eg 0.7

Try out various line spacing fractions until you get what you need.

There’s a catch.  Reduce the line spacing too much and the letters will be cut off. Here’s an example with 0.5 line spacing.

We usually settle for something in the 0.7 to 0.8 range to get the lines close together without clipping the tops of letters.

Tables – the Word formatting friend

Tables are the secret trick for all Word nerds.

Put each line in a cell then adjust the row heights until they are as close as you need.  Turn the table gridlines off and it appears as two lines of closely formatted text.

Close line spacing with a table (left, gridlines showing) and how it appears in the final document (right).

Text Box

The ultimate in line positioning is using a text box.  Put one or both of the lines in a text box.  Set the text box to Shape Fill | No Fill (ie transparent), no border and positioning in front of text.  Drag the text box until it’s exactly where you want it.  Because the box is transparent and ‘floating’ it can be overlaid on the rest of the document to give exact positioning.

Make a Word text box with rounded corners
Hidden Text, Images and objects in Word
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Using Text Boundaries view in Word – how and why

To format line spacing:

1. Click Format on the menu bar.
2. Select Paragraph. The Paragraph dialog box appears.
3. Click the Indents and Spacing tab.
4. In the line spacing drop-down menu, you can select single, 1.5, or double spacing. The default is single spacing.
5. Click OK.

How many points is 1.5 line spacing?

The first is set to “1.5 lines” (which is 21 points per line). The other is set to “Exactly” 21.

How do you do 1.5 spacing on pages?

Set line and paragraph spacing in Pages on Mac

1. Select one or more paragraphs, or click the text box or shape with the text you want to change.
2. In the Format sidebar, click the Style button near the top.
3. Click the pop-up menu to the right of Spacing, then choose an option.

What is the shortcut key for 1.5 line spacing?

Ctrl+5
Align and format paragraphs

Is 1.5 the same as double spacing?

Word Right-click in the text and select Paragraph from the menu. Go to the menu under Line spacing . Exactly is best—enter a fixed measurement. Single , 1.5 lines , and Double are equivalent to about 117%, 175%, and 233% line spacing, contrary to what their names suggest.

How do you do spacing on Microsoft Word?

Go to Home > Line and Paragraph Spacing. Select Line Spacing Options, and then choose the options you want under Spacing. To change the spacing before or after the selected paragraphs, select the arrow next to Before or After and enter the amount of space that you want. Select Set as Default.

Change the spacing between characters

1. Select the text that you want to change.
2. On the Home tab, click the Font Dialog Box Launcher, and then click the Advanced tab.
3. In the Spacing box, click Expanded or Condensed, and then specify how much space you want in the By box.

How do I change spacing in Word app?

Change the spacing in a Word document on a mobile device

1. In your Word document, select the text you want to change.
2. On your iPad, tap the Home tab, and then tap the Line Spacing icon.
3. Tap the Line Spacing menu and choose the line spacing you want, from 1.0 to 3.0.

How do you add a space after a paragraph in Word?

Select the paragraph or paragraphs you want to format. On the Home tab, click the Line and Paragraph Spacing command. Click Add Space Before Paragraph or Remove Space After Paragraph from the drop-down menu.

What is single spacing in Word?

Word allows you to customize the line spacing to be single spaced (one line high), double spaced (two lines high), or any other amount you want. The default spacing in Word is 1.08 lines, which is slightly larger than single spaced.

What is L Ctrl?

Alternatively referred to as Control+L and C-l, Ctrl+L is a keyboard shortcut whose function differs depending on the program being. For example, in Microsoft Word, Ctrl+L is used to align text with the left edge of a document (margin).Ctrl+L in Excel and other spreadsheet programs.

What does Ctrl tab do in Word?

Alternatively referred to as Control+Tab and C-tab, Ctrl+Tab is a keyboard shortcut most often used to switch between open tabs in a browser.

How do I make 1.5 spacing in InDesign?

Thus, 12/14.4 (point size/leading) default of Adobe InDesign is what is commonly accepted as single spacing. 1.5x spacing would be 12/21.6 (point size/leading) and 2x spacing would be 12/28.8 (point size/leading).

How do I create a custom line spacing?

Change the line spacing in a portion of the document

1. Select one or more paragraphs to update.
2. Go to Home > Line and Paragraph Spacing.
3. Select Line Spacing Options and choose an option in the Line spacing box.
4. Adjust the Before and After settings to change spacing between paragraphs.
5. Select OK.

What is APA line spacing?

In general, double-space all parts of an APA Style paper, including the abstract; text; block quotations; table and figure numbers, titles, and notes; and reference list (including between and within entries). Do not add extra space before or after paragraphs. Double-space the rest of the title page.

Is 1.0 single spacing?

Line spacing is the distance between lines. In earlier versions of Word, the default line spacing distance is “1.0,” or single-spacing, which stacks lines closely together with minimal space between. The amount of that space varies depending on the font used.

How do you change line spacing in Word 2007?

Select the text you want to format. Click the Line spacing command in the Paragraph group on the Home tab. Select a spacing option.
The Paragraph dialog box appears.

1. Use the Line spacing drop-down menu to select a spacing option.
2. Modify the before and after points to adjust line spacing as needed.
3. Click OK.

How do I fix the spacing between words in Word justified?

Click the “Home” tab and then select the “Distributed” button in the Paragraph group. Alternatively, press “Ctrl-Shift-J.” This applies a full justification effect that evenly distributes spaces in both words and characters.

How do I fix the spacing between words in Word for Mac?

Change Default Font and Spacing in Mac Word

1. Click on File and Style….
2. Select Normal and click Modify….
3. Change your font, pt, line spacing, etc. (i.e. I changed the Font to Times New Roman, 12 pt, and line spacing to single.) Click OK when done.
4. Click Yes when prompted.

How do you put a space between two words in CSS?

You can wrap your text in a p tag, and you can add a margin to that after making it inline-block. Alternatively, you can make the container a flexbox, and use justify-content: space-between; but you’ll need to group each icon with its respective text inside another div or span.

What is justified in Word?

When you justify text in Word, you give your text straight edges on both sides of the paragraph. Justifying extends each line of your text to the left and right margins.

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Introduction

As you design your document and make formatting decisions, you will need to consider line and paragraph spacing. You can increase spacing to improve readability and reduce it to fit more text on the page.

Optional: Download our practice document.

Watch the video below to learn how to adjust line and paragraph spacing in your document.

Line spacing

Line spacing is the space between each line in a paragraph. Word allows you to customize the line spacing to be single spaced (one line high), double spaced (two lines high), or any other amount you want. The default spacing in Word is 1.08 lines, which is slightly larger than single spaced.

In the images below, you can compare different types of line spacing. From left to right, these images show default line spacing, single spacing, and double spacing.

Line spacing is also known as leading (pronounced to rhyme with wedding).

To format line spacing:

1. Select the text you want to format.

   

2. On the Home tab, click the Line and Paragraph Spacing command, then select the desired line spacing.

   

3. The line spacing will change in the document.

   

Adjusting line spacing

Your line spacing options aren’t limited to the ones in the Line and Paragraph Spacing menu. To adjust spacing with more precision, select Line Spacing Options from the menu to access the Paragraph dialog box. You’ll then have a few additional options you can use to customize spacing.

• Exactly: When you choose this option, the line spacing is measured in points, just like font size. For example, if you’re using 12-point text, you could use 15-point spacing.

• At least: Like the the Exactly option, this lets you choose how many points of spacing you want. However, if you have different sizes of text on the same line, the spacing will expand to fit the larger text.
• Multiple: This option lets you type the number of lines of spacing you want. For example, choosing Multiple and changing the spacing to 1.2 will make the text slightly more spread out than single-spaced text. If you want the lines to be closer together, you can choose a smaller value, like 0.9.

  

Paragraph spacing

Just as you can format spacing between lines in your document, you can adjust spacing before and after paragraphs. This is useful for separating paragraphs, headings, and subheadings.

To format paragraph spacing:

In our example, we’ll increase the space before each paragraph to separate them a bit more. This will make it a little easier to read.

1. Select the paragraph or paragraphs you want to format.

   

2. On the Home tab, click the Line and Paragraph Spacing command. Click Add Space Before Paragraph or Remove Space After Paragraph from the drop-down menu. In our example, we’ll select Add Space Before Paragraph.

   

3. The paragraph spacing will change in the document.

   

From the drop-down menu, you can also select Line Spacing Options to open the Paragraph dialog box. From here, you can control how much space there is before and after the paragraph.

You can use Word’s convenient Set as Default feature to save all of the formatting changes you’ve made and automatically apply them to new documents. To learn how to do this, read our article on Changing Your Default Settings in Word.

Challenge!

1. Open our practice document.
2. Select the the date and the address block. This starts with April 13, 2016, and ends with Trenton, NJ 08601.
3. Change the spacing before the paragraph to 12 pt and the spacing after the paragraph to 30 pt.
4. Select the body of the letter. This starts with I am exceedingly and ends with your consideration.
5. Change the line spacing to 1.15.
6. When you’re finished, your page should look like this:

   

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In the old days, getting a document written up neatly involved having a medieval monk painstakingly copy everything out by hand in elaborate illuminated script.

Thankfully, now we have word processors, which makes life much simpler. As well as eliminating the need to hire a scribe, programs like Microsoft Word provide a range of formatting options to make sure your work is easy to read.

In this post, for example, we take a look at how to set line spacing in Microsoft Word.

What is Line Spacing? Why Does it Matter?

Line spacing is the gap between lines of text in your document. College students are often told to use double spacing (i.e., a gap twice the height of the font) to enhance the clarity of their written work and so markers have space to leave feedback on a paper.

How to Set Line Spacing

Adjusting the spacing in a document is reassuringly easy thanks to the pre-defined settings in Microsoft Word (instructions apply to Word 2007 onwards):

1. Select the text you want to adjust
2. Find the “Paragraph” section on the “Home” tab
3. Click on the line and paragraph spacing button to open the dropdown menu
4. Select the desired line spacing (standard options range from 1.0 to 3.0)

To double-space your document, simply click “2.0.” If you pick “Line Spacing Options” from the dropdown menu, you can also customize the spacing to suit your requirements.

Taking Shortcuts

If you find yourself regularly adjusting the spacing in your work, you could save time by using the keyboard shortcuts in Microsoft Word. For line spacing, these are:

To set the spacing in your document this way, simply select the passage(s) you want to modify and use the shortcut for the spacing desired. To select all text in the document, use “Ctrl + A” on PC or “Command + A” on Mac.