Line spacing in Word 2010

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I have had to purchase Office 2010 since my registered copy of Office XP will not register, even though I have the codes. Now I have set up problems with Office 2010. Now when using Word 2010, the default line spacing in documents seems to be 1 1/2 instead of 1. I have tried to change this to no avail. Why change the default to 1 1/2? Can anyone advise me how to changet the line spacing default back to 1?

Thanks!

Charles H. (Mike) Parker:rolleyes:

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I have had to purchase Office 2010 since my registered copy of Office XP will not register, even though I have the codes. Now I have set up problems with Office 2010. Now when using Word 2010, the default line spacing in documents seems to be 1 1/2 instead of 1. I have tried to change this to no avail. Why change the default to 1 1/2? Can anyone advise me how to changet the line spacing default back to 1?

Thanks!

Charles H. (Mike) Parker:rolleyes:

Here’s what I found to be the easiest way to fix it.

Open blank document, On Home Tab go to Styles and right click the Normal style – on basis this is the one most people use the most.

Select Modify and just above the centre box are the spacing icons. Tinker away to get it how you want it and click OK.

All future docs will have the new settings – you can amend all Quck Styles the same way.

Mike

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You can go to the right side of the styles gallery and pick the Word 2003 style set. That may be what you want.

There is spacing inside a paragraph – between the lines and spacing between paragraphs. These are two different settings.

Inside a paragraph:
“The quickest way is to select all the text and press Ctrl+1. “If you want to change the defaults for a document, you can do the following: In the Styles pane (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+S), click the Manage Styles button. On the Set Defaults tab, select “Single” for line spacing. To apply the settings to the document, click OK. To transfer the settings to the template attached to the current document, select “New documents based on this template” before clicking OK.” Stefan Blom Word MVP

If you started with a new blank document the attached template will be the default normal.dotm template an this will change settings for all new blank documents.

The spacing between paragraphs is set in the style you are using for the paragraph. You want to modify the style. Again, you can have this changed for all future new documents.

Learn about styles.

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You may also want to look at the free Add-In from Greg Maxey that puts Word 2003 menus and toolbars on a Word 2007/2010 tab.
The link to download it is at the bottom of this page. The page itself explains a bit about how the add-in was made.

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Although changing the normal paragraph style is what we’ve always done before, in W2010, it’s not the best way since a changed normal can block some of the newer features, such as style sets, and an older one, table style font settings. Instead, go to

1–File > Open > Trusted templates (scroll to the top of the left-hand pane if you don’t see it). Double click on Normal(.dotm).
2–Go to Home tab > Styles group > Change Styles > Paragraph Spacing > No paragraph spacing.

This will give you the 2010 font (12 pt Calibri) but with single line spacing and no paragraph spacing. If you prefer the look of W2003, then, go to

2a–Home tab > Styles group > Change Styles > Style sets > Word 2003.

Save and close normal.dotm. When you create a new document, the settings should be there.

Take a look at some of the other built-in style sets, you may see something that you like even better. Try it on a document using the built-in headings styles and an unmodified normal style or other styles based on it. Note that you can use the paragraph spacing choices to adjust the style set’s paragraph and line spacing. If you then save your combined choice as a new style set, you can apply it to other documents. I use mine to apply my preferences whenever I generate a new normal.dotm.

Pam

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There’s another way of changing the defaults in Word 2010. Click on the dialog launcher (arrow in lower right corner) of the Styles group to open the Styles pane. At the bottom of the pane are three square buttons. The one on the right is labeled (when you hover the mouse) “Manage Styles”. Click that button. Then click the tab labeled Set Defaults. Choose the font, font size, line spacing, etc. which you prefer. Make sure that the option button labeled New documents based on this template is selected. Click OK. Normal style is based on these default settings, so Normal style will inherit what you set here. So will other styles such as footnotes, endnotes, etc. If you change only Normal style, especially if you change the font from Calibri to Times New Roman, you might be surprized by Calibri popping up here and there. That will not happen if you set the font through Manage Styles. The same is true for line spacing.

In the Set Defaults tab, you’ll notice that the font is +Body. This relates to Office Themes, a feature which is worth learning a bit about. If Themes don’t interest you, change the font to Times New Roman, or whatever you prefer.

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There’s another way of changing the defaults in Word 2010. Click on the dialog launcher (arrow in lower right corner) of the Styles group to open the Styles pane. At the bottom of the pane are three square buttons. The one on the right is labeled (when you hover the mouse) “Manage Styles”. Click that button. Then click the tab labeled Set Defaults. Choose the font, font size, line spacing, etc. which you prefer. Make sure that the option button labeled New documents based on this template is selected. Click OK. Normal style is based on these default settings, so Normal style will inherit what you set here. So will other styles such as footnotes, endnotes, etc. If you change only Normal style, especially if you change the font from Calibri to Times New Roman, you might be surprized by Calibri popping up here and there. That will not happen if you set the font through Manage Styles. The same is true for line spacing.

In the Set Defaults tab, you’ll notice that the font is +Body. This relates to Office Themes, a feature which is worth learning a bit about. If Themes don’t interest you, change the font to Times New Roman, or whatever you prefer.

I hope you don’t mind. I added your comment to my FAQ page on changing the default font. If you want the quotation or the attribution removed please let me know.

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Thank you Pam Caswell. I, too, was getting pretty frustrated with having to change the default every time I opened 2010. Your instructions were quite clear.

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