Line and Paragraph Spacing

Learning Outcomes

  • Change line spacing of text.

Line Spacing

Line spacing is the distance between lines of text. Loose line spacing can make text much more readable, while tight line spacing can fit more text in a space.

To change the line spacing, select the lines you want to change. Then go to the Home tab and find the line spacing button in the Paragraph section. The line spacing button triggers a dropdown menu from which you can select a line spacing.

A microsoft word document with a section of text on it. A large green arrow is pointing towards the line spacing menu and the dropdown for it has been triggered.

The numbers in the line spacing dropdown menu reflect how much the line spacing will increase relative to the size of the line. For example, a line spacing of 1 means the line spacing will be as large as one line, a line spacing of 2 means the line spacing will be the size of two lines, and so on.

A section of text with 1.0 line spacing.

1.0 spacing
A section of text with 2.0 line spacing.

2.0 line spacing
A section of text with 3.0 line spacing.

3.0 line spacing

Practice Question

Paragraph Dialog Box: Line Spacing

Open the paragraph dialog box by clicking the small arrow icon in the bottom-right corner of the Paragraph group.

A microsoft word document is open zoomed in on the ribbon bar. A green arrow is pointing at paragraph dialog box which has already been surrounded by a green box.

You can use the Line spacing dropdown menu to choose Single, 1.5, or Double line spacing. The At least option lets you set a minimum point value for the spacing, and Exactly lets you set an exact point value. Finally, the Multiple option lets you set a line spacing greater than Double (for example, 3 for triple spacing).

The spacing menu has been opened and in it the dropdown for the line spacing has been opened.

Paragraph Spacing

You may have noticed that by default, Word adds a space between each paragraph. You can change the size of that space or eliminate it completely by changing the paragraph spacing. There is an option to Add Space Before Paragraph or Remove Space After Paragraph in the line spacing menu.

A microsoft word document with a section of text on it. A large green arrow is pointing towards the line spacing menu and the dropdown for it has been triggered. In the dropdown menu a green box highlights how to "Add Space Before Paragraph" or "Remove Space After Paragraph".

For more control over the paragraph spacing, go to the paragraph dialog box.

Paragraph Dialog Box: Paragraph Spacing

Open the paragraph dialog box by clicking the small arrow icon in the bottom-right corner of the Paragraph group.

A microsoft word document is open zoomed in on the ribbon bar. A green arrow is pointing at paragraph dialog box which has already been surrounded by a green box.

The Spacing section controls how much space comes before and after a paragraph. Here, you can increase or decrease the amount of points that come before and after the paragraph you have selected.

The dialog box has been zoomed in on with a green box around the spacing portion of the options.

 

 

Practice Question