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About this lesson
Learn why you would want more space between the lines within paragraphs and how to apply the space.
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Exercise files
Download the ‘before’ and ‘after’ Word documents from the video tutorial and try the lesson yourself.
Line Spacing .docx59.1 KB Line Spacing - Solution.docx
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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 Hello, I'd like to talk to you about line spacing.
- 00:07 Now in this first paragraph, the line spacing basically is set at normal, and
- 00:12 basically there's enough white space between the lines and text for
- 00:17 the human eye to just discern the text.
- 00:19 But maybe you wanna adjust it, or change it for whatever reason.
- 00:23 So the button is on the Home ribbon in the paragraph group.
- 00:26 And it's right here, Line Spacing.
- 00:29 When you hit the drop down arrow, you can see all the options.
- 00:31 And as I float my mouse along here, you're going to see that first paragraph adjust
- 00:35 itself because that's where my insertion point was.
- 00:38 This is a paragraph feature, so whatever paragraph I've clicked into,
- 00:41 I don't have to have the whole thing selected, just be in the paragraph.
- 00:44 Here's one and an eighth line spacing, one and
- 00:47 a half, double line spacing, two and a half, and three.
- 00:52 So generally, one is the old fashioned typewriter way.
- 00:56 That was the standard.
- 00:57 We had single spacing, we had double spacing.
- 01:00 That was it.
- 01:00 But at some point, Microsoft decided to go to one and an eighth spacing as
- 01:06 the standard, which is fine, it just spreads it out a little more, so.
- 01:11 All right, let's go on to the next one now.
- 01:12 Double-spacing was basically if you were writing an essay or a manuscript and
- 01:17 someone would be making editing marks into that, onto that paper.
- 01:22 They needed room to write those marks, so that's why we go to double spacing.
- 01:26 So I'm gonna click into the second paragraph,
- 01:28 click on the line spacing button, and choose 2, okay?
- 01:31 So there you go, and there's plenty of room to write those marks.
- 01:35 Now the last paragraph is if you really wanna spread things out,
- 01:39 you can go to two and a half or three.
- 01:41 In all my years of office administration I never had used three point
- 01:46 line spacing, but for some reason it is now an option with Microsoft.
- 01:51 You can choose that if you want.
- 01:52 Well, this is all fine until you reach a point where your text is
- 01:57 going off the page unnecessarily, and you need to pull the lines closer together.
- 02:02 The best way you do that would be simply select the entire document,
- 02:07 I just did a click and drag and it rolled off my screen.
- 02:09 And now I can just switch it back to single spacing.
- 02:12 Well, there's a trick to do that.
- 02:13 Ctrl+1 on your keyboard, Ctrl+1, single spacing.
- 02:17 Ctrl+5 is one and a half, so it'd be single plus a half.
- 02:21 So Ctrl+5, one and a half spacing.
- 02:23 Ctrl+2 is double spacing, and that's it for the control keys.
- 02:27 We have one, five, and two, all right.
- 02:29 If you wanna do anything further or differently you must use the button, and
- 02:33 go to one and an eighth or two and a half, or three.
- 02:36 It's your options, okay?
- 02:38 I'll go to one and a half.
- 02:39 But we have one more option in there called Line Spacing Options.
- 02:43 When I click on that one, now we can actually get kinda technical.
- 02:47 Here's my indents and spacing, indention and spacing right here.
- 02:51 So I can add lines a little before, a little after the paragraph, but
- 02:55 right over here, this is one and a half lines.
- 02:57 So I can click on that and go single, one and
- 03:00 a half double, at least a certain amount exactly or multiple options.
- 03:04 Okay, so just so
- 03:05 you know you have even more technical adjustments to make in here.
- 03:10 If you actually have to save on space and get technical, here's how you would do it.
- 03:14 All right, I hope that helps you and
- 03:16 I hope you learn those control keys are awesome, thank you.
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