The Complete Troubleshooting Guide: How to Double Space in Word and Fix Spacing Bugs

Catch up with The Complete Troubleshooting Guide: How to Double Space in Word and Fix Spacing Bugs. Read all about expert viewpoints in full detail.

Every time you press the Return or Enter key, Word creates a structural paragraph break. Most users believe this merely drops the cursor to the next line. Under the hood, Word treats that break as a distinct structural unit, appending an invisible spacer defined in the paragraph properties.

If your draft has 2.0 line spacing combined with default paragraph margins, Word doubles the line spacing and then tacks an extra 8 points of blank paper beneath the final line of each section. To clean up this bloat, you must access the Paragraph dialog box directly:

1. Highlight your text or select the whole document.
2. Under the Home tab ribbon, click the tiny diagonal arrow icon in the bottom-right corner of the Paragraph grouping. Alternatively, right-click any highlighted sentence and select Paragraph.
3. Find the section labeled Spacing midway down the Indents and Spacing tab.
4. Set both Before and After numeric input boxes to 0 pt.
5. Set the Line spacing dropdown menu explicitly to Double.
6. Check the box beside Don't add space between paragraphs of the same style.
7. Click OK.

If you prefer using the ribbon bar, click the Line and Paragraph Spacing dropdown button and click Remove Space After Paragraph. If the menu reads "Add Space After Paragraph," your spacing has already been zeroed out.