Locked lesson.
About this lesson
Exercise files
Download this lesson’s related exercise files.
Line Spacing - Exercise.docx58.6 KB Line Spacing - Exercise Solution.docx
58.6 KB
Quick reference
Line Spacing
Line spacing is the white space between the lines of text in a paragraph and is adjustable depending on your particular document.
When to use
Generally, single spacing is used and would be the same spacing if typed on a typewriter. There is enough whitespace between the lines for the human eye to easily discern the text.
Double line spacing is used mostly in school environments where a teacher will edit or correct a term paper or essay. The double spacing allows room for the edit marks.
1.5 line spacing is for the same reason as double, or “2.0” spacing, but shrinks it just enough to allow more text per page.
Instructions
- Click into a paragraph, or select the entire document with Ctrl-A.
- Click on the Home Ribbon, Paragraph group, and the line spacing button.
- Select a line spacing measurement.
Tips:
- Ctrl-1 is Single space
- Ctrl-5 is 1 ½ space
- Ctrl-2 is Double Space
- Ctrl-A is “select all” and will highlight the entire document so you can change the line spacing all at once.
- 00:04 Let's talk about line spacing options on the Home ribbon in the Paragraph group.
- 00:09 There's a button right over here when I float my mouse, it says Line and
- 00:13 Paragraph Spacing, and then gives a description.
- 00:15 Choose how much space appears between lines of text or between paragraphs.
- 00:20 So as you're reading the letter, the whitespace between the lines helps you
- 00:24 make out the difference between the next line, but we can set those.
- 00:27 Now this first one, by default, is set at 1.15, that's one and an eighth spaces.
- 00:34 So there's just enough whitespace to make out the lines.
- 00:37 Let's go ahead and click into the second paragraph and go right back up here.
- 00:41 Watch what happens to the second paragraph as I float my mouse on the single space.
- 00:48 The one and eighth, the one and a half space, double space,
- 00:53 two and a half space, triple space.
- 00:56 Now you could even go further, to Line Spacing Options.
- 00:59 And when I activate that button, even though this says Paragraph, Indents and
- 01:04 Spacing, with some advanced features for indents and spacing,
- 01:07 line spacing is right over here.
- 01:09 I could literally come over here and type a 5.
- 01:12 And when I hit OK, it would be a quintuple spacing.
- 01:15 Not sure why I would want that.
- 01:18 So, very quickly, I'm going to set that back to single spacing.
- 01:22 As you can see, I have a tip right down here at the bottom.
- 01:24 Try the keyboard command Ctrl+1 for single space.
- 01:28 How about that for quick, right?
- 01:30 Ctrl+2 for double space.
- 01:33 Ctrl+5 for quintuple, now it actually means 1.5 spacing.
- 01:38 I'll go ahead and tap through those, and watch what happens to that paragraph.
- 01:43 Start with Ctrl+1 for single space, Ctrl+5 for 1.5, Ctrl+2 for double.
- 01:49 Now, those are the only ones that have control keys attach to them.
- 01:54 So if you want more, you need to go up to the button and choose something different.
- 01:59 Okay, let's click into the bottom one because I want to blow your mind here.
- 02:02 This is really crazy what you can do.
- 02:04 Click into the bottom paragraph,
- 02:06 float my mouse up onto the Line Spacing button on the Home ribbon.
- 02:10 I'm going to go back into Line Spacing Options.
- 02:13 And in here, remember where it says line spacing, you have a drop down.
- 02:17 We can do Single, 1.5, Double, At least a certain amount, Exactly, or Multiple.
- 02:21 I'm going to leave it set to Multiple.
- 02:24 But instead of 3, I wonder what 0.5 will look like.
- 02:28 I wonder how closely I can get these to line up, or if they'll overlap each other.
- 02:33 Let's go ahead and click OK and see what happens.
- 02:36 Hmm, not sure I'd want to do that, but the point is, you can do it.
- 02:40 So if you want to get rid of as much white space as possible,
- 02:44 you'd probably just go into the Line Spacing button > Line Spacing Options.
- 02:48 How about let's try a 0.8, see what that happens, hit OK.
- 02:51 Can we still see the words?
- 02:53 Yes, but there's not much space between them.
- 02:56 Right up above, this one is Ctrl+1, single space, and look how much closer this is.
- 03:02 The only reason I would ever use something like that is if maybe I had
- 03:06 small print at the bottom of a letter and I really had to just jam it in there.
- 03:10 I might remove all whitespace between the lines with a 0.8.
- 03:14 So it's not something you're going to use a lot, but
- 03:17 it's kind of cool to know you have that option.
- 03:19 Okay, please practice this, especially the Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2, and Ctrl+5.
Lesson notes are only available for subscribers.