Word spacing at least

Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Understanding At Least Line Spacing.

There are several methods Word can use for line spacing. Typically, the default spacing type (as specified in the Line Spacing field of the Paragraph formatting dialog box) is Single. This means line spacing will be adjusted, automatically, as a «single» line. Word’s definition of «single» means that the spacing is 120% of the largest font size or element on each individual line. Thus, if the largest font size used on a particular line is 20 pt, then the line spacing for that line will be 24 pt.

The effect of the default setting is that if you end up with a line that has nothing but small type on it, then the spacing for that line will be less than for the other lines in the paragraph. If you don’t want this to occur, you can use the At Least line spacing setting. This setting allows you to specify the minimum line spacing for the paragraph. Word is free to increase spacing beyond what you specify, but it cannot reduce it.

To change this setting, follow these steps:

1. Display the Home tab of the ribbon.
2. Click the Line and Paragraph Spacing tool in the Paragraph group. Word displays a number of common spacing options.
3. Choose Line Spacing Options. Word displays the Paragraph dialog box.
4. Use the Line Spacing drop-down list to choose At Least. (See Figure 1.)



Figure 1. Adjusting to use At Least line spacing.

5. Change the At value (to the right of the drop-down list you just used) to reflect the minimum line spacing you want used.
6. Click OK.

Author Bio

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen…

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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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Intent

The intent of this Success Criterion (SC) is to ensure that when people override author
specified text spacing to improve their reading experience, content is still readable
and operable. Each of the requirements stipulated in the SC’s four bullets helps ensure
text styling can be adapted by the user to suit their needs.

The specified metrics set a minimum baseline. The values in between the author’s metrics
and the metrics specified in this SC should not have loss of content or functionality.

This SC focuses on the adaptability of content to an increase in spacing between lines,
words, letters, and paragraphs. Any combination of these may assist a user with effectively
reading text. As well, ensuring that content correctly adapts when users override
author settings for spacing also significantly increases the likelihood other style
preferences can be set by the user. For example, a user may need to change to a wider
font family than the author has set in order to effectively read text.

Author Responsibility

This SC does not dictate that authors must set all their content to the specified
metrics. Rather, it specifies that an author’s content has the ability to be set to
those metrics without loss of content or functionality. The author requirement is
both to not interfere with a user’s ability to override the author settings, and to
ensure that content thus modified does not break content in the manners shown in figures
1 through 3 in Effects of Not Allowing for Spacing Override. The values in the SC
are a baseline. Authors are encouraged to surpass the values specified, not see them
as a ceiling to build to. If the user chooses to go beyond the metrics specified any
resulting loss of content or functionality is the user’s responsibility.

Further, this SC is not concerned with how users change the line height and spacing metrics. It does not require that content
implement its own mechanisms to allow users to do this. It is not a failure of the
content if a user agent or platform does not provide a way for users to do this. Content
does not fail this SC if the method chosen by the user — for instance, the use of
an extension or bookmarklet — fails to correctly set the line height and spacing text
properties on the content (provided that the content is not actively and purposely
preventing the properties from being added).

Applicability

If the markup-based technologies being used are capable of overriding text to the
Success Criterion’s metrics, then this SC is applicable. For instance Cascading Style
Sheet/HTML technologies are quite able to allow for the specified spacing metrics.
Plugin technologies would need to have a built-in ability to modify styles to the
specified metrics. Currently, this SC does not apply to PDF as it is not implemented
using markup.

Examples of text that are typically not affected by style properties and not expected to adapt are:

• Video captions embedded directly into the video frames and not provided as an associated
  caption file
• Images of text

For this SC, canvas implementations of text are considered to be images of text.

User Responsibility

The ability to read and derive meaning from the overridden spacing rests with the
user. The user may choose to exceed the spacing adjustments in the SC. If the increased
spacing causes loss of content or functionality, the user will adjust or return to
the author’s original spacing or spacing within the bounds of the SC. Regardless,
the user needs the flexibility to adjust spacing within the bounds set in the SC without
loss of content or functionality. Such changes may be achieved via user stylesheet,
bookmarklet, extension, or application.

Effects of Not Allowing for Spacing Override

The following images show some types of failures when authors do not take into consideration
that users may override spacing to the metrics specified in this Success Criterion.

Text Cut Off

The bottom portion of the words «Your Needs» is cut off in a heading making that text
unreadable in Figure 1. It should read «We Provide a Mobile Application Service to
Meet Your Needs.»

In Figure 2 the last portion of text is cut off in 3 side-by-side headings. The 1st
heading should read «A cog in the wheel.» But it reads «A cog in the whe». Only half
of the second «e» is visible and the letter «l» is completely missing. The 2nd heading
should read «A penny for your thoughts». But it reads «A penny for your». The 3rd
should read «Back to the drawing board.» But it reads «Back to the drawi».

Text Overlap

In Figure 3 the last 3 words «Groups and Programs» of the heading «Technologists Seeking
Input from Groups and Programs» overlap the following sentence. That sentence should
read, «You are invited to share ideas and areas of interest related to the integration
of technology from a group or program perspective.» But the words «You are invited
to share ideas» are obscured and unreadable.

Back to Top

Aligning Paragraphs

To align paragraphs, follow these steps:

   1.   Position the insertion point into the paragraph or
select the paragraphs that you want to align.

   2.   Do one of the following:

• Click the alignment button on the Home tab, in the Paragraph group
  to align left/right, center, or justify the paragraph text or press one of the
  shortcut keys:

  

• Choose Paragraph… from the shortcut menu (right-click or press Shift+F10), to
  display the Paragraph dialog box:

  

  On the Indents and Spacing tab, choose the alignment option from the Alignment
  list and then click OK:

  

Adjusting line spacing

To adjust spacing between lines, follow these steps:

   1.   Position the insertion point in the paragraph or
select the paragraphs that you want to adjust.

   2.   Do one of the following:

• On the Home tab, in the Paragraph group, click Line Spacing Options…:

  
• Choose Paragraph… from the shortcut menu to open the Paragraph dialog box. On the
  Indentation and Spacing tab, in the Line Spacing list box, choose one of the options:
  • Single — Single-line spacing. (Line height automatically adjusts to accommodate the
    size of the font and any graphics or formulas in a line.)
  • 1.5 Lines — Line-and-one-half spacing (an extra half-line of space between lines).
  • Double — Double-spacing (an extra full line of space between lines).
  • At Least — At least the spacing that you specify in the At
    box-the line won’t be smaller than you specify, but it may be higher because
    Word will add extra spacing for
    tall characters, big graphics, and superscript or subscript text.
  • Exactly — The exact spacing that you specify in the At box. All lines
    have the exact same height, regardless of the size of the characters in the line; Word
    doesn’t add extra spacing. Note that some text may be cut off if not enough space is
    available.
  • Multiple — Multiples of single-line spacing, such as triple (3) or quadruple (4), as
    specified in the At box.

  To specify a custom line spacing, type the spacing amount that you want in the At box. For
  example, enter 1.25 for an extra quarter line of space between lines, or click the up or
  down arrow to increase or decrease the amount in half-line increments. When you finish, click
  OK.

• Press one of the shortcut key combinations:
  • Ctrl+l — Single-spacing
  • Ctrl+5 — 1.5-line spacing
  • Ctrl+2 — Double-spacing
  • Ctrl+0 (zero) — Add or remove 12 points of space before a paragraph.

Apply paragraph styles

To change paragraph styles, follow these steps:

   1.   Position the insertion point into the paragraph or select the
paragraphs that you want to change.

   2.   Do one of the following:

• Choose the style in the in the Styles group, on the Home tab:

  

• Press one of the shortcut key combinations:
  • Alt+Ctrl+1 — Apply the Heading 1 style
  • Alt+Ctrl+2 — Apply the Heading 2 style
  • Alt+Ctrl+3 — Apply the Heading 3 style
  • Ctrl+Shift+N — Apply the Normal style
  • Ctrl+Shift+L — Apply the List style

Remove paragraph formatting by pressing Ctrl+Q to revert the text format to the current style’s
default settings or Ctrl+Shift+N to apply the Normal style to the paragraph.

See also this tip in French:
Comment changer le format de paragraphe avec les raccourcis claviers.

August 1, 2010 at 2:17 pm

In Word, there are two types of spacing: line spacing and paragraph spacing. Both are attributes of paragraph formatting that can be configured via the Paragraph dialog,[1] but they work differently. Line spacing affects the distance between lines of text within a paragraph, and paragraph spacing affects the distance (i.e., the white space) between paragraphs.

Line Spacing

Line spacing options in Word include conventional single and double spacing, plus a few additional choices. Before exploring the other choices, it’s worth discussing single and double spacing, which are not — contrary to what you might think — entirely self-explanatory.

The Role of “Leading” in Single and Double Spacing

Many people probably assume that the “simple” line-spacing options — single and double spacing — merely reflect multiples of the point size of the font they are using. If that were so, single-spacing with any 12-point font would produce lines of text that are 12 points in height and double-spacing would produce lines of text that are 24 points in height. (As a reminder, there are 72 points to an inch; thus, 12 points is 1/6 of an inch and 24 points is 1/3 of an inch.)

However, that formulation leaves out one crucial factor. In order to improve readability, single and double spacing add a certain amount of vertical distance — in the form of white space — between lines of text, an aspect of typography known as “leading” (pronounced as if it were spelled “ledding”). The amount of leading varies depending on which font you are using (not all 12-point fonts are equal). Typically, single-spaced lines range from 110% to 135% of the font size. For example, let’s say you select Times New Roman, a font that is common in legal documents. If you set the font size at 12 points and apply single spacing, the true height of your lines of text will be roughly 115% to 120% of the point size, or 13.8 to 14.4 points.[2] The line height might be different with a different font, such as Arial, Courier New, or Helvetica, even if you set the font size at 12 points.

Similarly, double spacing usually runs 220% to 270% of the size of your chosen font. So, sticking with our example, using Times New Roman at 12 points and applying double spacing will result in lines that are spaced approximately 27.6 to 28.8 points apart.

This phenomenon — the vertical expansion caused by “leading” when you use single spacing or double spacing in Word — explains a number of confusing issues, including why it can be difficult to align text with the line numbers in pleading paper. (The Pleading Wizard, a utility used to generate pleading paper in versions of Word prior to Word 2007, sets an “Exact” point size for the numbered lines, such as 22.75 points, that is smaller than standard double spacing. Because double-spaced body text is “taller” than the line numbers, the text and the numbers quickly get out of sync.)

To get a feel for how much extra spacing leading adds, select a 12-point font and type a brief paragraph (make sure it’s at least two lines long). First, set the line spacing to single. Then change the line spacing to Exactly 12 points. Try the same experiment with the line spacing set to double and then to Exactly 24 points. You’ll notice a tremendous difference.

The moral of the story: If you don’t want Word to expand your text vertically, don’t use single or double spacing. Instead, use an “Exactly” setting, such as Exactly 12 points or Exactly 24 points. (In pleadings, you’ll need to choose a setting for the body text that matches the spacing of the numbered lines. For a longer discussion of this point, see my earlier post, “Aligning text with pleading line numbers”.)

The New Default Line Spacing

As if matters weren’t confusing enough, Microsoft changed the default line spacing to 1.15 lines in Word 2007 and Word 2010 and to 1.08 lines in Word 2013 and Word 2016.[3] The default setting in older versions is single spacing, which — notwithstanding the additional vertical space resulting from leading — is substantially more compact than the new setting.

It’s easy to change the default line spacing, however. Simply open the Paragraph dialog, set the spacing according to your preferences, then (1) in Word 2007, click the “Default” button, then click “Yes” and click “OK”; (2) in Word 2010, click the “Set As Default” button, click the “All documents based on the normal.dotm template” option, then click “OK” twice.

Additional Line Spacing Options

Besides single spacing and double spacing, Word offers four additional line spacing options: 1.5 lines, “Exactly,” “At Least,” and “Multiple.” The 1.5 line option is similar enough to single and double spacing that it doesn’t merit further discussion here.

As for the other options, “Exactly” enables you to choose a highly precise line spacing that remains fixed, whereas “At Least” gives you the option of specifying a minimum line spacing and letting Word adjust the height if necessary to accommodate graphics such as drop caps (or other characters) that wouldn’t otherwise fit. (This option presumably is used widely in desktop publishing but, for obvious reasons, isn’t suitable for pleadings or any similar type of document that is subject to strict formatting rules.)

The “Multiple” option is used for setting line spacing at an interval other than single, double, or 1.5. For example, if you wanted triple spacing, you would use the “Multiple” option and type “3” in the “At” box. (The new default line spacing of 1.15 involves the “Multiple” option.)

“Exactly” can be important when you are working on pleadings. As mentioned earlier, the process of generating pleading paper usually results in line numbering that does not use true double-spacing. For technical reasons, the line numbers on pleading paper often are spaced 22.75 points apart (or some similar figure). In order to get the text of the pleading to align properly with the line numbers, you have to make sure the line spacing of the text matches that of the line numbers (which you can determine by going into the document’s header, clicking somewhere within the line numbering, and then launching the Paragraph dialog and viewing the setting for the line spacing). If it doesn’t match, you’ll have to select the text and change the setting via the “Exactly” option.

Paragraph Spacing (“Before” and “After” Spacing)

By contrast with line spacing, paragraph spacing refers to the space between paragraphs. You can tell Word to insert extra space automatically before a paragraph, after a paragraph, or both. For example, if you want Word to insert one blank line between paragraphs, you can set the “Spacing After” to 12 points, the rough equivalent (as we now know) of a standard single-spaced line. Or you can set both the “Spacing Before” and the “Spacing After” to 6 points (about half a line).[4]

When using one or both of these options, test them first to see if they work in a given situation. Sometimes you can end up with too much (or not enough) space between paragraphs.

“Before” and “After” spacing often are incorporated into styles for body text and headings in order to achieve uniform spacing between paragraphs in a document.

Because “Before” and/or “After” spacing automatically add white space between paragraphs, you’ll have to get into the habit of not pressing the Enter key twice to move the cursor to the next paragraph.

“Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style”

In all versions of Word from 2007 through 2016, there is an additional item in the Paragraph dialog labeled “Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style.” If the option is enabled (i.e., the box to the left of the option is checked), Word will ignore your “Before” and/or “After” settings.[5]

Microsoft applies this setting to certain built-in styles but not to others. It is disabled by default for the Normal paragraph style, which means you can increase the “Before” and/or “After” paragraph spacing for text using the Normal style and your changes will go into effect as you expect. On the other hand, the setting is enabled by default for bulleted and numbered lists, which means that items (paragraphs) in the list will not be separated by white space unless you specifically insert such space manually.

If you have configured Before and/or After spacing to add space between paragraphs but Word appears to be ignoring your settings, open the Paragraph dialog and note whether “Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style” is checked. If it is, close the dialog, select the list (or other text) to which you want to add Before and/or After spacing, reopen the Paragraph dialog, uncheck the option, reset the Before and/or After spacing if necessary, and click “OK.” Now your extra Before and/or After spacing should go into effect as you intended.

________________________________________________________________
[1] In all versions of Word, you can open the paragraph dialog by using the keyboard shortcut Alt O, P. In versions of Word prior to Word 2007, you also have the option of clicking the Format menu, Paragraph; in Word 2007 and Word 2010, you can click the dialog launcher at the lower right corner of the Paragraph group in the Home tab.

[2] There is some confusion / disagreement over the exact amount of leading typically produced with Times New Roman. Pinpointing this figure is less important to me than making sure that readers understand the general concept and also have a sense of the approximate degree to which the text will expand if you use single or double spacing, rather than an “Exact” figure.

[3] Microsoft also changed the “Normal” paragraph style by adding 10 points of “After” spacing in Word 2007 and Word 2010 and 8 points of “After” spacing in Word 2013 and Word 2016. See the following sections for an explanation of “Before” and “After” spacing.

[4] “Before” and “After” spacing can be configured independently, of course.

[5] Note that even with the box checked, you’ll be able to add space between paragraphs manually—i.e., by pressing the Enter key.

Entry filed under: Uncategorized.

While you might have experience changing the formatting for your Word documents to meet the requirements for your school or job, you might encounter a situation where you need to use different settings.

Microsoft Word is full of different tools and menus that let you customize your document, and line spacing is something that you can adjust.

Our tutorial below will show you how to single space in Word, even if you have already written and edited the entire document.

How to Make a Word Single Space Document

1. Open the document.
2. Click inside the document and press Ctrl + A to select everything.
3. Select the Home tab at the top of the window.
4. Click the Line and Paragraph Spacing button.
5. Choose the 1.0 option.

Our guide continues below with additional information on how to make a document single space instead of double space in Microsoft Word, including pictures of these steps.

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Document spacing can impact several things, including the number of pages in the document. Microsoft Word includes several different options from which you can select to control the amount of space between the lines in your document.

Many schools and organizations have their own rules and preferences when it comes to the amount of line spacing that you have in your documents. Often they want you to use double spacing, but it’s entirely possible that they might want single spacing to reduce the number of pages in documents.

A document in Microsoft Word can have a lot of different formatting options, including the amount of space between lines.

If your current document is double spaced, or if it appears to have more or less spacing than the single spacing you need, you may be looking for a way to adjust that.

You can make a Microsoft Word single space document by opening the document, selecting all of the text, choosing the Home tab, clicking the Line and Paragraph Spacing button, then choosing the 1.0 option from the drop down menu.

Our guide below will show you how to single space in Word by selecting all of the text in the document and adjusting the line spacing setting.

You can also check out our tutorial on how to select all in Word if you would like to know more about using that option.

How to Use Single Spacing in Word for Office 365 (Guide with Pictures)

The steps in this article were performed in the Microsoft Word for Office 365 version of the application but will work in most other versions as well.

Step 1: Open your document in Microsoft Word.

Step 2: Click inside the document, then press Ctrl + A on your keyboard to select everything.

If this is a new, blank document, you can skip this step.

Step 3: Select the Home tab at the top of the window.

Step 4: Click the Line & Paragraph Spacing button in the Paragraph section of the ribbon.

Step 5: Choose the 1.0 option from the dropdown menu to switch the document to single spacing.

Note that there is a Line Spacing Options button at the bottom of that dropdown menu.

If you select that option, you will be able to customize your document spacing further and set a new default spacing option if you would like.

Our tutorial continues below with additional discussion about how to make a document single spaced in Word.

You can also read our article on how to double space in Word for additional information about Microsoft Word line spacing.

How to Change Default Line Spacing in Microsoft Word

While you can change line spacing in every document that you create or edit in Microsoft Word, you might not want to adjust spacing every time.

But if your Word Normal template is defaulting to double spacing and you need to have single spacing more often, then constantly switching the line spaces can not only be tedious, it can be something that you forget to do.

Fortunately, among all of the different formatting adjustments that you can make for your document, there is a way to set the default line spacing.

1. Open Microsoft Word.
2. Select the Home tab.
3. Click Line and Paragraph Spacing.
4. Choose Line Spacing Options.
5. Click the Line spacing drop down.
6. Select your default line spacing preference.
7. Click Set as Default.
8. Choose All documents based on the Normal template.
9. Click OK.

Now any new documents that you create in Microsoft Word that use the Normal template will have the line spacing that you just chose.

this will not affect the line spacing in any of your existing documents.

More Information on How to Apply Single Line Spacing in Word

While we have focused on changing the line spacing setting in an MS Word document, for the entire document, you can also format a document so that only some of it is single spaced.

Rather than selecting the whole document, simply use your mouse to select the part of the document for which you want to change the spacing, then follow the steps above to apply a new line spacing setting to that selection.

Another thing that you can adjust that relates to line spacing is the paragraph space setting. This affects the amount of line spacing that appears before and after your paragraphs.

You can find the paragraph spacing settings by clicking the Home tab, then clicking the small Paragraph Settings button at the bottom-right corner of the Paragraph group in the ribbon. This will open the Paragraph dialog box.

There you can select line spacing options in the “Spacing” section so that you can choose the amount of space before and after a paragraph, as well as determine the line spacing type.

Frequently Asked Questions About How to Make a Document Single Spaced in Word