How to make the size between lines in Word. How to Reduce Line Spacing in Word

To minimise line spacing, Word has a lot of functionality. Use them and "comb" your text document.

When working with text documents of large volume, many small blots may occur, which then spoil appearance text. To fix this, you may need to know how to reduce line spacing. This is a non-false procedure that even a person with little knowledge of text formatting can perform in Word 2007 and 2010.

Ways to remove intervals

First, check if there is an extra paragraph character between the lines. To check this, there are two options: visual or programmatic.

  1. With the first, everything is clear - you just need to see if there is an extra paragraph somewhere;
  2. In the case of a software option, the use of the built-in Word function is implied. It can show characters that are not visible in normal text. Let's talk about it in more detail.

Non-display characters feature

Unequal spacing between lines and paragraphs is best removed using this tool diagnostics. This speeds up text editing time in Word 2007 and Word 2010.

To find spacing, in the Control Panel, on the Home tab, find the Paragraph section. Then press the button with this “¶” icon. This is the icon for the displayed characters. By activating the function, you will see how a period appeared between the spaces. Other characters will also be visible, including paragraph marks. This is a very useful option. It does not change the text in printed format, but allows you to more carefully study the text before sending it to print.

If the line spacing is too large, there may be spacing between the lines. Open the Home tab and in the Styles menu, set the value to No Spacing. If this option is not visible, then it is not displayed on the taskbar. To open it, click on the arrow button and select the required item.

If you need to reduce the space between lines in the middle of a paragraph, highlight the required fragment. To do this, it is not necessary to use the left mouse button, as many are used to. It is enough to hold down the "Shift" key and move the cursor with the "right" / "left" arrows. If you want to select all the text, on the Home tab, open the Edit menu and click on the Select All button.

With the desired fragment selected in the Page Layout tab, select the item with a small arrow icon. You can do it differently: right-click on the text and select the "Paragraph" section from the menu that opens (this can be done in any of the Word versions: 2003, 2007, 2010).

A window will appear in which go to the "Indents and Spacing" item. In the "Interval" section, enter desired type interval (single, minimum). You can also select the mode "multiplier" or "exact", then you will need to specify a value. To enter a value, use the function buttons "up" / "down" directly in the window or enter it using the keyboard. Click OK to apply the settings. Now the distance between the lines will be the same everywhere.

Description of intervals

When working with line spacing in Word 2007 and 2010, the following knowledge may be useful to you:

  • "Single" spacing is the same as the largest font that was used in the selection;
  • “One and a half” is a distance that exceeds the previous interval by one and a half times;
  • "Double" - respectively, exceeds the performance of a single interval by 2 times. That is, the font size will be twice as large as the maximum font in the selection;
  • "Minimum" is the minimum value. There is enough space left in the interval so that the letter corresponding to the font in the text can fit in it;
  • "Exactly" - you can set the interval value yourself;
  • "multiplier" given distance proportional to a certain ratio. In accordance with it, the interval will decrease or increase. For example, if you set the multiplier to 1.4, then the line spacing will increase by 40%.

Removing line spacing in Word 2007 and 2010 is a routine procedure that even a person who has just installed Word on his computer can perform. Using the spacing setting, you can quickly edit your document to suit your needs. And with the help of the non-displayed characters function, you can reduce the spacing between lines.

Changing the standard letter spacing in the text may be necessary to fix attention on its individual sections. To change the spacing between letters in a Word, you need to perform the following sequence of actions.

Spacing Adjustment


To increase the spacing between letters, select Sparse.

By default, you can extend the letter spacing by 1 point, which is 0.35 mm. For the convenience of the user, a sample is provided below, showing how the text will look in this case. Obviously, the user can change the value by 1 pt, using small triangles to add or subtract the spacing by 0.1 pt. Another option is to directly enter in the interval size field desired value and click OK. You can enter an arbitrarily large distance.

To reduce the interval, you must select "Compressed".

The user can reduce the letter spacing similarly to the previous case - by default by 1 pt, or by setting the desired value. As can be seen from the sample, in this case, the compaction of the text had a negative impact on its readability.

The change in the inter-letter spacing considered above is the same for all letters of the selected text. In text Word editor it is possible to change the letter spacing more subtly, taking into account the peculiarities of the style of neighboring letters. With the kerning feature turned on, Word chooses the optimal spacing between pairs of characters automatically, depending on the features of the font. The purpose of kerning is to increase the visual appeal of text.

A careful comparison of the last two screenshots - before and after kerning, allows you to verify this. Kerning is mainly used in texts with large fonts - headings and logos.

Video: How to increase the space between letters?

Above, the letter spacing was considered in relation to Word 2010. There are no differences in the Word of the next versions - 2007 and 2013.

The line spacing in the Word is set automatically and manually, depending on what the user needs at the moment. The following are general guidelines for setting the spacing. For different Word programs, they will not differ significantly, since the procedure is the same everywhere, and the differences are only in the location of a particular button.

How to make a spacing in Word manually

To change the line spacing, you must adhere to the following algorithm. We select the part of the text necessary for processing. In the "Home" tab in the "Paragraph" group, click on the small box to the right of the inscription "Paragraph". In it we find the inscription "Interline", click on the arrow and select the desired indicators in the pop-up list. Their correct assessment depends on how quickly and correctly you draw up your document.

  1. Single. It is used most often, is optimal for most cases and is used as a starting point for other intervals.
  2. 1.5 lines. This is the so-called one and a half, which is 1.5 single.
  3. Double. It specifies the spacing between strings in two singles.
  4. "Minimum". This is the minimum space between lines where it is possible to place them so that they do not merge.
  5. "Exactly." With it, you can set a fixed interval in points. It is installed in the window on the right using the arrows.
  6. "Factor". Designed to establish large gaps between lines. It got its name because when you set the line spacing with arrows, its size increases significantly.

The choice of the desired option also depends on the availability of graphic material. If there are separate fragments or large characters in the text, the spacing is automatically increased. Often in advance given interval some graphics, characters or text may not be visible. To prevent this from happening, you need to take into account the features of the document and set an adequate interval.

Setting line spacing in Word for the entire document

If the same values ​​need to be set for all text, then it is better to use a set of quick styles that already contain the necessary parameters. Through the "Home" tab, you must enter the "Styles" group and click on the "Edit Styles" command. Hover over the pop-up list and click on the name of your choice. In order to figure out how to make intervals in a Word between paragraphs, you need to use the styles and paragraph functions.

When changing the spacing between paragraphs for only part of the text, you can use . Enter it and change the parameters manually through two windows called "Before" and "After". Most often they are installed zero value. This means that there will be equal spacing between all lines and paragraphs. You can do even easier: put a bird in the box below. It's called: "Do not add spacing between paragraphs of the same style." With a large text fragmentation, interparagraph distances, of course, are best set manually, that is, using specially specified parameters in relation to the selected part.

Paragraph spacing can also be adjusted using Quick Styles. Their selection is made according to the scheme described above and according to the same algorithm.

Thus, line spacing and interparagraph spacing are easy to set, well regulated and help to achieve the desired variety in the work.

When typing different text documents, there is a need for different line spacing. For example, for abstracts or term papers very often one and a half line spacing (1.5) is required, while in others text documents line spacing of 1.0 or 1.15 can be used. Therefore, it is very important to be able to change the line spacing in Word.

To change the line spacing in Word, a special button is used, which is located on the "Home" tab in the "Paragraph" button block. This button looks like a few lines of arrows and is fairly easy to spot.

If you are using Word 2003, then there is also such a button.

After pressing this button, a menu appears in which you can select one of several standard line spacing. In particular, here you can choose one and a half line spacing (1.5), which is often required for abstracts, term papers and theses.

Additional line spacing settings

In addition to the standard intervals in this menu there is an item "Other options for line spacing". It should be used if none of the intervals available in the menu is suitable.

If you select "Other line spacing options", then you will see a window with additional settings indents and intervals. In order to adjust line spacing, you will need a settings block called "Interval". Here you can change the way the line spacing is formed, as well as its size (value).

Here are the following ways to form line spacing:

  • Single - the spacing is selected depending on the largest font in the line.
  • 1.5 lines - an interval of 1.5 lines. In fact, this is the same one and a half line spacing.
  • Double - same as single spacing, but twice as long.
  • Minimum - the minimum spacing required for the normal display of all characters.
  • Exact - the exact size of the line spacing in points.
  • Multiplier - standard way line spacing formatting. Increases single line spacing by the specified number of times.

14.08.2017

Line spacing in office program Microsoft Word— a value that determines the distance between lines on a document page. Most users do not change it? since the default one satisfies almost all needs. However, changing this parameter will help make the text more readable, and if it is greatly enlarged, it will be possible to make signatures on the printed sheet. Moreover, many teachers require a strictly set distance that differs from the standard one, but it can be difficult to find the right tab to change it on your own.

Setting the interval before starting work

There are several ways to set line spacing for a blank document.

Method 1: button in the "Home" tab

In an empty document, you can set a single value that will differ from the default.


Method 2: Edit Styles Menu

There is another way to quickly change line spacing. For some, it will seem more convenient than the previous one.


Method 3: in the "Page Layout" tab

Another interesting way.


Change the spacing of an existing document

Most often, a situation occurs when you need to change the line spacing to already finished document. If just trying to do it with a button in a tab "Home", then nothing will work for you: the parameter will only change in the paragraph on which the cursor is located. To change the spacing between lines in the entire document, you need to select all the written text with the left mouse button, and only then you can use method number 1.

Tip: In order to quickly select absolutely all the text in a document, you need to hold down the keyboard shortcut "Ctrl" and English letter "A" or Russian "F". All text will be highlighted. This is much more convenient than performing the same operation with the mouse.

Change the spacing of an individual paragraph

Changing the spacing in a single paragraph is very easy. You need to select the paragraph you need with the mouse and do exactly all the steps described in method 1.

Setting default values

If you often write texts that need line spacing other than standard, then it would be much more convenient to change the default settings and never return to this issue.


Line spacing is an important parameter that exists in text Microsoft Editor word. As we were able to see, it is not difficult to change it both for the entire document and for its part. However, some users this operation causes difficulties. We hope that after reading this article, all your questions on the topic have disappeared and you can easily change the interval in the Word, if not, then write the points you are interested in in the comments.

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