Summary

Word has two separate spacing settings that look identical on screen: the space inside a paragraph (line spacing) and the space between paragraphs (Space Before and Space After). This article covers both, so you can hit a page-count target, meet a double-spaced submission rule, or close the gap that keeps reappearing no matter how many times you set spacing to single.

In this guide

• 1. Change Line Spacing from the Home Tab
• 2. Set Precise Spacing in the Paragraph Dialog
• 3. Close the Gap Between Paragraphs
• 4. Stop the Gap Coming Back Between Same-Style Paragraphs
• 5. Change Spacing for the Whole Document at Once
• 6. Fix Spacing in Bulleted and Numbered Lists
• 7. Check What Spacing a Paragraph Is Using

Before You Start

• Microsoft Word on Windows, Mac, or the web. The Exactly line spacing option and the Reveal Formatting pane are desktop-only.
• Edit access to the document. Click Enable Editing if a Read-Only banner appears across the top.
• No admin rights required.

Instructions

1. Change Line Spacing from the Home Tab

This is the fast route and covers single, 1.5, and double spacing.

1. Select the text you want to change. To change the whole document, press Ctrl + A.
2. Click the Home tab.
3. In the Paragraph group, click Line and Paragraph Spacing. The button shows four short horizontal lines with an up-and-down arrow beside them, and sits to the right of the alignment buttons.
4. Pick a value from the top of the menu: 1.0, 1.15, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, or 3.0.
5. The menu closes and the selected text re-flows immediately. A tick mark appears next to the active value the next time you open the menu.

Keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl + 1 for single, Ctrl + 5 for 1.5, Ctrl + 2 for double. These work on the current paragraph even without a selection.

Note: Selecting nothing changes only the paragraph the cursor is sitting in. This is the single most common reason a spacing change appears to "not work" — the reader changed one paragraph and expected the document to follow.

2. Set Precise Spacing in the Paragraph Dialog

When a style guide asks for a specific point value rather than a multiple, use the dialog.

1. Select the text, then click the Home tab.
2. Click the small diagonal arrow in the bottom-right corner of the Paragraph group. The Paragraph dialog opens on the Indents and Spacing tab.
3. Find the Spacing section at the bottom half of the dialog. The Line spacing dropdown sits on the left, with an At box beside it.
4. Choose one of the options in Line spacing:
   • Single, 1.5 lines, Double — multiples of the font's own line height. The At box stays greyed out.
   • At least — a minimum height in points. Lines grow taller if they contain a bigger font or an inline image.
   • Exactly — a fixed height in points. Nothing makes the line taller.
   • Multiple — any multiplier you type, for example 1.08 or 0.9.
5. Type a value in the At box when the option needs one, for example 24 pt for double-spaced 12 pt text.
6. Watch the Preview panel near the bottom of the dialog redraw as you change the values.
7. Click OK.

Note: Exactly is the setting that silently cuts text off. If you set 12 pt text to Exactly 10 pt, the tops of capital letters and any inline image get clipped, and nothing on screen tells you why. Use At least unless you specifically need a fixed grid — for example, when shrinking a stray paragraph to close a blank page.

Tip: The Layout tab has Spacing Before and Spacing After spin boxes in its own Paragraph group. They change the same values as the dialog without opening it.

3. Close the Gap Between Paragraphs

This is the complaint behind most line-spacing searches: the gap between paragraphs refuses to close even after setting spacing to single. Line spacing is not what is creating it.

Word's default Normal style adds 8 pt of space after every paragraph. That gap is a separate setting, and changing line spacing never touches it.

1. Select the paragraphs with the unwanted gap, or press Ctrl + A for the whole document.
2. Click Home > Line and Paragraph Spacing.
3. Click Remove Space After Paragraph at the bottom of the menu. The paragraphs close up immediately.
4. If a gap remains above the paragraph, open the menu again and click Remove Space Before Paragraph.

To set an exact value instead of removing it entirely:

1. Select the paragraphs and open the Paragraph dialog (Home tab, small arrow in the bottom-right of the Paragraph group).
2. In the Spacing section, set Before and After to the values you want. Type 0 pt in both to close the gap completely.
3. Click OK.

Verification: Press Ctrl + Shift + 8 to show formatting marks. If you see only one ¶ at the end of each paragraph and the gap is still there, the cause is Space After. If you see two or more ¶ marks stacked up, someone pressed Enter for the spacing instead — delete the extra marks.

4. Stop the Gap Coming Back Between Same-Style Paragraphs

Removing Space After everywhere closes the gaps you did not want, and also the ones you did — headings end up welded to the text below them. One checkbox gives you both.

1. Select the text, then open the Paragraph dialog from the Home tab.
2. On the Indents and Spacing tab, look directly under the Before and After boxes for the checkbox Don't add space between paragraphs of the same style.
3. Select it.
4. Click OK.

Word now suppresses the spacing between consecutive paragraphs that share a style — body text against body text — while keeping it where two different styles meet, such as a heading followed by body text.

Tip: This is the setting behind Word's built-in No Spacing style. Clicking No Spacing in the Styles gallery on the Home tab applies single spacing with zero Before and After in one click, which is faster when you are typing a document from scratch rather than repairing one.

5. Change Spacing for the Whole Document at Once

Pressing Ctrl + A and setting spacing fixes the text that exists right now. Every new paragraph you type afterwards comes back with the old spacing, because new paragraphs inherit from the Normal style. Change the style instead.

1. Click the Home tab.
2. In the Styles gallery, right-click Normal and choose Modify. The Modify Style dialog opens.
3. Click the Format button in the bottom-left corner and choose Paragraph. The familiar Paragraph dialog opens on top.
4. Set Line spacing, Before, and After to the values you want.
5. Click OK to close the Paragraph dialog and return to Modify Style.
6. Choose where the change applies at the bottom of Modify Style:
   • Only in this document — this file alone.
   • New documents based on this template — this file and every new blank document you create from now on.
7. Click OK. Every paragraph using Normal, plus every style built on top of it, updates at once.

A faster whole-document route with fewer decisions:

1. Click the Design tab.
2. Click Paragraph Spacing on the right-hand side of the ribbon.
3. Hover over the presets to see the document redraw live: No Paragraph Space, Compact, Tight, Open, Relaxed, and Double.
4. Click the one you want. Custom Paragraph Spacing at the bottom opens a dialog if none of the presets fit.

Note: Design > Paragraph Spacing overrides the styles for the whole document in one move, which makes it excellent for a quick reformat and unhelpful when you need one section to differ. For mixed spacing, modify the individual styles instead.

6. Fix Spacing in Bulleted and Numbered Lists

List items are paragraphs, so they inherit Space After and end up looking double-spaced when the surrounding text does not.

1. Click and drag to select the whole list, including every bullet or number.
2. Click Home > Line and Paragraph Spacing > Remove Space After Paragraph.
3. The list closes up while the paragraphs above and below keep their spacing.

To keep a gap before and after the list but not inside it:

1. Select the list, then open the Paragraph dialog.
2. Set Before and After to 0 pt.
3. Select the Don't add space between paragraphs of the same style checkbox.
4. Click OK. The list items sit tight against each other, and the body paragraphs on either side keep their own spacing.

Tip: If your list came from a web page or a PDF, its spacing is baked into the pasted formatting and will fight you. Strip it first — see How to Fix Microsoft Word Formatting Instantly (Without Re-typing) — then apply spacing to the clean text.

7. Check What Spacing a Paragraph Is Using

When one paragraph looks different from its neighbours and you cannot see why, stop guessing and read the values.

1. Click inside the paragraph that looks wrong.
2. Press Shift + F1. The Reveal Formatting pane opens down the right side of the window.
3. Expand the Paragraph section in the pane. It lists Alignment, Indentation, and Spacing with the exact Before, After, and Line spacing values in force.
4. Click inside a paragraph that looks correct and compare the two readings.
5. Select the Compare to another selection checkbox at the top of the pane to have Word list the differences for you.

Verification: The Spacing entry reads something like Before: 0 pt After: 8 pt Line spacing: Multiple 1.08 li. That After: 8 pt is the gap you have been trying to delete.

Troubleshooting

TIP

If the gap between paragraphs will not close, stop changing line spacing — it is not the cause. The gap is Space After, a separate value set to 8 pt by Word's default Normal style. Select the text and click Home > Line and Paragraph Spacing > Remove Space After Paragraph.

Symptom / Error	Potential Cause	Solution
Gap between paragraphs stays after setting single spacing	Space After is set to 8 pt	Apply Remove Space After Paragraph, or set After to 0 pt in the Paragraph dialog (Step 3).
Only one paragraph changed	Nothing was selected	Spacing applies to the paragraph containing the cursor. Press Ctrl + A to select the document, or drag across the paragraphs you want (Step 1).
Spacing reverts as soon as I type a new paragraph	New paragraphs inherit the Normal style	Modify the Normal style rather than selecting existing text (Step 5).
Tops of letters or an inline image are cut off	Line spacing set to Exactly with too small a value	Open the Paragraph dialog and switch Line spacing to At least, or raise the At value above the font size (Step 2).
Headings are now stuck to the text below them	Space After removed from every paragraph	Restore spacing on the headings and use the Don't add space between paragraphs of the same style checkbox instead (Step 4).
Gaps are uneven and formatting marks show extra ¶ symbols	Blank paragraphs typed with Enter	Delete the empty paragraphs — see How to Delete a Blank Page in Word — then set spacing properly.
The Exactly option is missing from the menu	Editing in Word for the web	Word for the web offers multiples only. Click Editing > Open in Desktop App to reach the full Paragraph dialog.

Related Articles

• How to Fix Microsoft Word Formatting Instantly (Without Re-typing)
• How to Delete a Blank Page in Word
• How to Change Margins and Page Orientation in Word
• How to Use Heading Styles and Create a Table of Contents in Word
• How to Add Page Numbers, Headers, and Footers in Word
• How to Convert a Word Document to PDF (and Back)

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