If you’re like most people, you use the default line spacing in Microsoft Word 2007 and 2010. But what if you want to change the spacing? Here’s how to do it. ..
Spacing in Word 2003
In Word 2003 the default line spacing is 1.0 which might be to compressed for some users.
Change Line Spacing in Word 2007 & 2010
In Word 2007 & 2010 Microsoft changed the default line spacing to 1.15. Which might be ok for some users because the sentences don’t seem so crammed together, but you might want to customize it.
If you want to change the spacing of an entire document, under the Home tab in the Styles group select Change Styles then Style Set.
Then you can hover the pointer over different Style Sets in the list, you can see how it will look with Live Preview. For example here we set it to Word 2003…
And here is an example of the Manuscript Style Set. Hover over any of the Sets in the list and the entire document will change. Once you find one you like just click on it.
Make a Style Set the Default
You might want to the Style Set to default to the one you choose every time you start a new document. To set it as default go to Change Styles then Set as Default.
Here we set it to Word 2003 and anytime we start a new document, it will default to this Style Set with Spacing set to 1.0.
Change Line Spacing in Selected Portions of Documents
If you only want to change the line spacing in select parts of a document, highlight the text to change. Then on the Ribbon in the Paragraph group click on the Line and Paragraph Spacing button.
Then select the spacing you want. Again with Live Preview you’ll be able to hover over the different spacing options and see how it will look.
If you select Line Spacing Options you can tweak it even more. It shows a small preview screen so you get a general idea of how it will look.
If you want to change it back you can easily go back to the default. Just click go to Change Styles \ Style Set \ Reset Document Quick Styles.
If you’re moving from an earlier version of Word to 2007 or 2010, you might want to change the line spacing and set it as default for all new documents. This will help you change the line spacing in specific parts of your documents as well.
Here are some other articles that will help you out if you’re moving from Office 2003 to a new version.
Bring Office 2003 Menus Back to 2010 & 2010 Upgrade Office 2003 to 2010 or Run them Side by Side How to Find Office 2003 Commands in Office 2010 Make Learning Office 2007 & 2010 Fun with Ribbon Hero
