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
- Open the document.
- Click inside the document and press Ctrl + A to select everything.
- Select the Home tab at the top of the window.
- Click the Line and Paragraph Spacing button.
- 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.
- Open Microsoft Word.
- Select the Home tab.
- Click Line and Paragraph Spacing.
- Choose Line Spacing Options.
- Click the Line spacing drop down.
- Select your default line spacing preference.
- Click Set as Default.
- Choose All documents based on the Normal template.
- 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
How do I get to the paragraph spacing menu in Word?
While this document has focused on using the Line and Paragraph Spacing drop down menu to change document spacing, you might want to adjust some other spacing options, too.
if you select the Home tab, then click the Paragraph Spacing button at the bottom-right of the Paragraph group, it will open a Paragraph dialog box.
At the top of the Paragraph dialog box, you will see Indents and Spacing, as well as Line and Page Breaks tabs.
Here you can customize the spacing before and after your paragraphs, as well as select line spacing options.
What is the Set as Default button at the bottom of the Paragraph dialog box?
If you have made a lot of changes in this dialog box and want them to apply to new documents that you create in the future, you have the option of using these settings as the default for future documents.
Simply click the Set as Default button at the bottom of the Paragraph menu, then confirm that you want to make this change.
Can I have single spaced text in just part of my Microsoft Word document?
Yes, you can have a mixture of different types of spacing in a single document.
Simply follow the steps above, but rather than selecting the entire document, select only the part of the document that you want to single space.
Then when you click the Line and Paragraph Spacing button in the Paragraph group and choose the 1.0 option, it will only affect the part of the document that’s currently highlighted.
Matthew Burleigh has been writing tech tutorials since 2008. His writing has appeared on dozens of different websites and been read over 50 million times.
After receiving his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science he spent several years working in IT management for small businesses. However, he now works full time writing content online and creating websites.
His main writing topics include iPhones, Microsoft Office, Google Apps, Android, and Photoshop, but he has also written about many other tech topics as well.
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Spruce up the formatting in your Word docs
What to Know
- To fix spacing between words, go to Find and Replace. Enter a space in both fields, then go to More > Format > Font and choose a font size.
- To adjust spacing between characters, go to Home, select Expand (the down-arrow) next to Font, and select the Advanced tab.
- To change spacing between lines, go to Home and select Expand (the down-arrow) next to Paragraph and adjust the Spacing options.
This article explains how to fix spacing in Word 2021, 2019, 2016, and Word for Microsoft 365.
How to Fix Spacing Between Words in Word
Using different fonts or font sizes in your document can lead to inconsistent spacing between words. Follow these steps to adjust the spacing between words without affecting the space between letters:
To show paragraph breaks and spaces, go to the Home tab and select the Show/Hide icon (¶) in the Paragraph group.
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Highlight the text you want to change and select the Home tab. Press Ctrl+A (Windows) or Cmd+A (Mac) to highlight the entire document.
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Select Replace in the Editing group.
On Mac, go to Edit > Find > Advanced Find and Replace, then select the Replace tab.
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Click in the Find what text field and press your spacebar to create a space.
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Click in the Replace with field and press your spacebar to create a space.
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Select More to expand the window.
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Select Format and choose Font.
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Under Size, choose the font size you use most consistently throughout the document, then select OK.
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Select Replace All.
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In a new window, Word will report the number of replacements. Select Yes to apply changes to the entire document, or select No to change only the highlighted text.
The spacing between words should now be consistent. You can now close the Find and Replace window.
Don’t add multiple spaces between words because it makes formatting the entire document more difficult.
You can justify text in Word if you want to expand word spacing so the right margin is always straight (like a newspaper column).
How Do I Fix Spacing Between Characters?
To adjust the spacing between characters (letters, numbers, symbols, etc.), follow these steps:
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Highlight the text you want to change and select the Home tab.
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Next to Font, select Expand (the down-arrow).
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Go to the Advanced tab. To stretch or compress the text, increase or decrease Scaling. For Spacing, choose Expanded or Condensed to adjust the spacing between all characters.
Select Kerning for fonts to enable text kerning. This feature automatically adjusts the spacing between characters to be more aesthetically pleasing. You can choose to kern characters above a certain size.
How to Fix Line Spacing in Word
Follow these steps to change the amount of space between lines within a paragraph:
To adjust the spacing between paragraphs, go to the Design tab, select Paragraph Spacing and choose from the options. For single spacing, choose No Paragraph Space.
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Highlight the text you want to change and select the Home tab.
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Next to Paragraph, select Expand (the down-arrow).
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In the Spacing section, manually set the amount of space before and after line breaks, or choose one of the options under Line spacing. Select the Line and Page Breaks tab for more advanced options like text wrapping and pagination settings.
When you’re done, select OK to save changes.
FAQ
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How do I change the tab spacing in Word?
The quickest way to set tab stops is to click the ruler where you want a tab. Alternatively, go to the Home tab and select Paragraph Settings in the Paragraph group. Next, select the Tabs button. Finally, set the desired Tab stop position, click Set, and click OK.
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How do I fix the spacing between bullet points in Word?
To change line spacing between bullets in a list, select the list and then click the Paragraph Dialog Box Launcher. On the Indents and Spacing tab, under Spacing, clear the Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style check box.
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You can often improve the look of your document by keeping certain words and paragraphs together on the page or across page breaks. Also, you can use hyphenation to improve overall readability.
Word automatically breaks the text at a space or a hyphen at the end of a line. To keep two words or a hyphenated word together on one line, you can use a nonbreaking space or nonbreaking hyphen instead of a regular space or hyphen.
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Click where you want to insert the nonbreaking space.
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On the Insert tab, in the Symbols group, click Symbol.
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In the box that opens, click More Symbols.
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In the Symbol dialog box, on the Special Characters tab, click the Nonbreaking Space row to highlight it, and then click Insert.
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Click Close.
Tip: You can also use the keyboard shortcut. Click where you want to insert the nonbreaking space, and press Ctrl+Shift+Spacebar.
Sometimes you want a hyphenated word to stay together on one line, without it breaking across lines.
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Click where you want to insert the nonbreaking hyphen.
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On the Insert tab, in the Symbols group, click Symbol.
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In the box that opens, click More Symbols.
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In the Symbol dialog box, on the Special Characters tab, click the Nonbreaking Hyphen row to highlight it, and then click Insert.
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Click Close.
Tip: You can also use the keyboard shortcut. Click where you want to insert the nonbreaking hyphen, and press Ctrl+Shift+Minus Sign.
Word automatically breaks paragraphs at the end of a page, so a paragraph that started on one page continues on to the next page. To keep the whole paragraph on the same page, follow these steps.
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Right-click the paragraph that you want to keep together. In the box that opens, select Paragraph.
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In the Paragraph dialog box, click the Line and Page Breaks tab.
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In the Pagination section, select the Keep lines together check box, and click OK.
If two consecutive paragraphs or a subhead and a paragraph are closely related, you might want to keep them on the same page.
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Right-click the paragraph or subhead that you want to keep with the content that follows it. In the box that opens, select Paragraph.
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In the Paragraph dialog box, click the Line and Page Breaks tab.
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In the Pagination section, select the Keep with next check box, and click OK.
Tip: It’s best not to add additional line breaks between your paragraphs because Word interprets each line break as a beginning of a new paragraph, and page breaks might not occur properly. If you want spaces between paragraphs, use the Paragraph Spacing controls. For more information, see Change spacing between paragraphs.
If a paragraph has a page break in the middle so that only the last line appears at the top of the following page, this lonely line is called a “widow.” If, on the other hand, a paragraph has a page break in the middle so that only the first line appears at the bottom of a page while the rest of the paragraph appears on the next page, this lonely line is called an “orphan.”
If you want to avoid widow and orphan lines in your document, follow these steps.
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Right-click the paragraph in which you want to avoid widows and orphans. In the box that opens, select Paragraph.
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Click the Line and page breaks tab.
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In the Pagination section, select the Widow/Orphan control check box.
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Click OK.
If a word is too long to fit at the end of a line, Microsoft Office Word 2007 moves the word to the beginning of the next line instead of hyphenating it. However, you can use the Hyphenation feature to automatically or manually hyphenate the text, insert optional or nonbreaking hyphens, and set the maximum amount of space allowed between a word and the right margin without hyphenating the word.
With automatic hyphenation, Office Word 2007 automatically inserts hyphens where they are needed. If you edit the document later and change line breaks, Office Word 2007 will re-hyphenate the document.
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Make sure that no text is selected.
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On the Page Layout tab, in the Page Setup group, click Hyphenation, and then click Automatic.
An optional hyphen is a hyphen that is used to control where a word or phrase breaks if it falls at the end of a line. For example, you can specify that the word «nonprinting» breaks as «non-printing» instead of «nonprint-ing.» When you insert an optional hyphen in a word that is not at the end of a line, the hyphen will be visible only if you turn on Show/Hide.
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On the Home tab, in the Paragraph group, click Show/Hide.
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Click in the word where you want to insert the optional hyphen.
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Press CTRL+HYPHEN.
To automatically hyphenate part of a document, do the following:
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Select the text that you want to hyphenate.
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On the Page Layout tab, in the Page Setup group, click Hyphenation, and then click Automatic.
When you manually hyphenate text, Office Word 2007 searches for text to hyphenate. After you indicate where you want to hyphenate the text, Word inserts an optional hyphen. If you later edit the document and change line breaks, Office Word 2007 displays and prints only the optional hyphens that still fall at the end of lines. Word doesn’t re-hyphenate the document.
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Select the text you want to hyphenate.
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On the Page Layout tab, in the Page Setup group, click Hyphenation, and then click Manual.
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If Office Word identifies a word or phrase to hyphenate, do one of the following:
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To insert an optional hyphen in the location that Office Word proposes, click Yes.
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To insert an optional hyphen in another part of the word, move the insertion point to that location, and then click Yes.
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Nonbreaking hyphens prevent hyphenated words, numbers, or phrases from breaking if they fall at the end of a line of text. For example, you can prevent 555-0123 from breaking; instead, the entire item will move to the beginning of the next line.
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Click where you want to insert a nonbreaking hyphen.
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Press CTRL+SHIFT+HYPHEN.
The hyphenation zone is the maximum amount of space Office Word 2007 allows between a word and the right margin without hyphenating the word. You can change the hyphenation zone to make it wider or narrower. To reduce the number of hyphens, make the hyphenation zone wide. To reduce the raggedness of the right margin, make the hyphenation zone narrower.
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On the Page Layout tab, in the Page Setup group, click Hyphenation, and then click Hyphenation Options.
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In the Hyphenation zone, type the amount of space you want.
You can remove all automatic hyphenation and each instance of manual hyphenation, such as optional and nonbreaking hyphens.
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To remove automatic hyphenation, on the Page Layout tab, in the Page Setup group, click Hyphenation, and then click None.
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To remove manual hyphenation, on the Home tab, in the Editing group, click Replace.
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If you don’t see the Special button, click More.
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Click Special, and then click either Optional Hyphen to remove manual hyphens, or Nonbreaking Hyphen to remove nonbreaking hyphens.
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Leave the Replace box empty.
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Click Fix Next, Replace, or Replace All.
See Also
Line and page breaks
Insert a page break
Change spacing between paragraphs
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This article tells you what to do if you think you’ve set your paragraph line spacing for the whole document but individual paragraphs refuse to behave. This is valid for Word 2007 and Word 2010, with Word 2013 to follow soon.
My spaces between paragraphs are uneven – help!
This just happened to me, which is why I’ve written up this article.
I was working on a bibliography for a client.
I set the paragraph and line spacing as I normally do: highlight the whole document, go to the Home tab, Paragraph section, and click the down arrow on the Spacing button:
This gives you the Spacing menu:
from which you choose your line spacing and lines after paragraphs options (I will write up a main post about this soon).
But it didn’t work!
Individual paragraphs still had no automatic spaces between then, even if I removed the line feed and pressed Enter again.
How to solve the problem of inconsistent paragraph spacing
Here’s how I did it.
I highlighted all of the text.
I right-clicked on the highlighted text and chose Paragraph from the options:
I then stayed on the Indents and Spacing tab and set my After spacing to 12pt and my line spacing to 2 (just in case). I also unticked Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style (it was filled in with blue rather than ticked so I clicked twice to get a tick and then no tick):
I pressed OK and the paragraphs all behaved beautifully.
I’m not entirely sure why this method works over the previous one, to be honest, but it worked for me and it was hard for me to find an easy, quick answer, so hopefully this will help a few people!
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If you have enjoyed this post or found it useful, please share the link!
Please note, these hints work with versions of Microsoft Word currently in use – Word 2007 and Word 2010, for PC. Mac compatible versions of Word should have similar options. Always save a copy of your document before manipulating it. I bear no responsibility for any pickles you might get yourself into!
Find all the short cuts here …
There are several ways to adjust line spacing in Microsoft Word. Today’s tutorial explains the basic method using the ribbon and a more advanced method using the Paragraph dialog box.
See the Quick Tip at the bottom of this tutorial to learn how to single-space an entire document from the Paragraph dialog box.
This tutorial is available as a YouTube video showing all the steps in real time.
Watch more than 150 other document software tutorials on my YouTube channel.
The images below are from Word for Microsoft 365.The steps are the same in Word 2021, Word 2019, and Word 2016, and similar for Word 2013 and Word 2010. However, your interface may look slightly different in those older versions of the software.
Basic Method: Adjust Line Spacing from the Ribbon
- Select the Home tab in the ribbon.
- (Optional Step) Select the Show/Hide button in the Paragraph group to show paragraph break symbols and other formatting that may affect line spacing.
- Select the text with the line spacing that needs to be changed.
- Select the Line and Paragraph Spacing button in the Paragraph group.
- Select an option from the drop-down menu:
A. Numbers 1.0 through 3.0 add space between lines.
B. Add Space Before Paragraph adds space before paragraphs but not before the lines within them.
C. Remove Space After Paragraph removes space after paragraphs but not after the lines within them.
These three options are based on your current font size with 1.0 being the equivalent of single-spacing.
Your changes will be applied immediately.
Note that you can apply the individual line spacing (the numbers 1.0 through 3.0) and the paragraph spacing to the same text to further customize your results.
- (Optional Step) Select the Show/Hide button again to hide paragraph symbols and other formatting (see figure 2).
Now, let’s move on to an advanced method offering additional spacing options.
Advanced Method: Adjust Line Spacing from the Paragraph Dialog Box
- Select the Home tab in the ribbon (see figure 1).
- (Optional Step) Select the Show/Hide button in the Paragraph group to show paragraph break symbols and other formatting that may affect line spacing (see figure 2).
- Select the text with the line spacing that needs to be changed (see figure 3).
Pro Tip: PC users can press Ctrl + A to select the entire document if all the line spacing needs to be changed. However, this includes items you may not want to alter, including headings, tables, table titles, figure captions, tables of contents, footnotes, endnotes, and reference lists.
- Select the dialog box launcher in the Paragraph group.
- Make changes in the Spacing section of the Paragraph dialog box:
A. The Before and After boxes represent the spaces before and after paragraphs measured in points with one point being 1/72 of an inch tall. Use the increment arrows to choose a whole number or enter a number with a decimal (e.g., 2.75) directly into the box.
B. The Line spacing drop-down menu offers six options:
1. Single—Creates single-spacing based on your current font size.
2. 1.5 Lines—Creates a space and a half as large as your current font size.
3. Double—Creates double-spacing based on your current font size.
4. At Least—Determines the minimum amount of space between lines based on the number of points entered in the At box.
5. Exactly—Creates space between lines based on the number of points entered in the At box.
6. Multiple—Creates spacing multiplied by the number entered in the At box. For example, if you enter four in the At box, your spacing will be four times as large as your current single-spacing.
C. Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style—For many users, this will remove spaces between all paragraphs because general documents commonly have only one paragraph style.
Note that the Preview box updates as you make adjustments in the Spacing section.
- Select the OK button to close the Paragraph dialog box.
- (Optional Step) Select the Show/Hide button again to hide paragraph symbols and other formatting (see figure 2).
Quick Tip: Single-Space an Entire Document from the Paragraph Dialog Box
- Select the Home tab in the ribbon (see figure 1).
- Select the entire document. (PC users can press Ctrl + A.)
- Select the dialog box launcher in the Paragraph group (see figure 7).
- Enter 0 in the Before box in the Paragraph dialog box (see figure 8).
- Enter 0 in the After box in the Paragraph dialog box (see figure 8).
- Select Single in the Line spacing drop-down menu (see figure 8).
- Select the OK button (see figure 9).
Related Resources
How to Adjust Letter Spacing in Microsoft Word (PC & Mac)
How to Adjust the Space between Words in Microsoft Word
How to Adjust Page Margins in Microsoft Word
Updated June 25, 2022