In helping patrons create documents in Microsoft Word and Google Docs, I’ve noticed that setting line and paragraph spacing is often frustrating. It is not at all obvious where to find these settings in either Word or Docs. Today, we’ll take a look at the spacing options available in both platforms.
Microsoft Word
To access the paragraph spacing settings in Word, click on the tool icon that looks like lines of text with up and down arrows to the left.
To see all available settings, click on Line Spacing Options.
The settings we are looking at are in the Spacing section. The Before and After sections are used to add space between paragraphs. This spacing only appears when the enter/return key is used. The Line Spacing dropdown menu offers single spacing, double spacing, and other options that apply to every line, whether it is a new paragraph or not.
If you choose multiple, use the At dropdown menu to select the spacing between lines.
To make the settings you choose the default for all new documents, click Set As Default after selecting your settings.
Google Docs
The spacing options aren’t quite as robust in Docs, but they can still be adjusted. Click on Format in the toolbar, then Line & paragraph spacing. Select Custom spacing if you don’t see the option you need.
The custom spacing dialog allows you to set line spacing as well as space before and after paragraphs.
To make your settings the default for new docs:
- Select a couple of sentences that have the spacing you want
- Go to Format>Paragraph styles>Normal Text
- Select Update normal text to match
- Go to Format>Paragraph styles>Options
- Select Save as my default styles
Those last two steps are necessary to change the defaults for new documents. If you only want to update the spacing throughout the current document, you can stop after Update normal text to match.
Summary
Setting line and paragraph spacing is a snap when you know where to look for the settings. In Word, select the toolbar icon with lines and arrows to the left. In Docs, click the format tab to get started. For more great tips, check out Tech-Talk’s resources for Word and Docs.
