Changing Line Spacing

The lines in all Word documents are single- spaced by default, which is appropriate for letters and most documents. But you can easily change your document line spacing to double or 1.5 lines to allow extra space between every line. This is useful when you want to make notes on a printed document. Sometimes, you'll want to add space above and below certain paragraphs, for headlines, or indented quotations to help set off the text.

Change Line Spacing

Select the text you want to change.

On the Formatting toolbar, click the Line Spacing button list arrow, and then click a spacing option.

• To apply a new setting, click the number you want.

  TIMESAVER Press Ctrl+1 for single-space, Ctrl+5 for 1.5 space, or Ctrl+2 for double-space.

• Click More to enter precise parameters.

• To apply the setting you last used, click the Line Spacing button.

  

Change Paragraph Spacing

Choose the paragraph(s) whose spacing you want to change, and then select that text.

Click the Format menu, and then click Paragraph.

Click the Indents And Spacing tab.

Under the Spacing header, enter the custom spacing parameters you want both before and after the paragraph(s), and then click OK.