What’s the deal with Word 2007/2010 line spacing?

Confused user staring at computer screen

by The Guru · 10 comments

If you’ve upgraded to one of the ribbon-interface versions of Microsoft Office recently, you may have noticed that every new document you create (as opposed to editing or making new documents from earlier ones) has this weird, more open line spacing.

What’s the story?

Well, it seems that Microsoft, in its infinite wisdom, decided that since we’re all posting documents on the Interwebs, we could all do with a more online-friendly line spacing scheme.  So they made line spacing in the Normal template 1.15 instead of 1.  By default.

Default paragraph settings for Word 2010

The default paragraph settings for Word 2010

Um … no.

If you want to change the default back to that single line spacing that looks good on paper, then here’s what you do:

  • On the home tab of the ribbon, find the Styles section (on the right).  You’ll see a drop-down called Change Styles.  Click it, then choose Style Set, then click on Word 2003 (which will change the default styles for that document to the ones where Normal paragraphs have single spacing with no extra space after paragraphs.

Changing default styles for Word 2010

  • To make this change effective for all new documents based on the Normal template, drop this menu down again, and choose Set as Default.
  • Now, when you review your Paragraph dialog box, you’ll see this:
Word 2003's default paragraph spacing for Normal text

Ah! That's better!

Hat tip to the Microsoft Office Knowledge Base for this one.

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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }

Mel July 4, 2011 at 2:50 am

Well, this is the 3rd “can’t miss” instruction set I’ve tried on how to default all documents to single space. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work for me either. Followed all steps, closed Word, and when I re-opened Word the line spacing was set back to 1.15. I’m sure this works for others, but it just does not do the job on my Word 2010. The hunt for the solution goes on! Thanks anyway.

Reply

DeClaire August 4, 2011 at 12:43 pm

Right, Mel, I followed the directions many times and nothing changes. Why on earth would you not make single spacing the default, and if you did go down that road to nowhere, couldn’t you at least make your directions for changing it back WORK? Word 2010 is just plain dismal.

Reply

The Guru August 23, 2011 at 2:16 pm

Well, I hate that this is not working for you. You might instead try the method recommended on Small City Law Firm Tech (http://vmanning.posterous.com/why-oh-why-wont-it-stick-changing-word-2010-f) – perhaps that will work better.

Reply

grace January 14, 2012 at 11:21 am

Thanks for this information. It worked perfectly for me.

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The Guru January 14, 2012 at 12:22 pm

Fantastic – glad it helped!

Reply

Elsa February 13, 2012 at 2:50 pm

I tried it and it worked for me on the first try. Thanks.

Reply

The Guru February 13, 2012 at 3:07 pm

Good – glad to see that method’s working well!

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Bluehole March 21, 2012 at 5:23 pm

For many, this procedure becomes a challenge, because it doesn’t always work. I spent a long time trying everything I could think of to get a default for the Normal document that was different than Calibri/11/1.5 spacing. Here’s what worked for me. It is the location of the template that counts, not the properties of the template. I had to MOVE my modified template to c:\users\appdata\roaming\microsoft\templates. There was no Normal template in the folder, until I moved it there. This worked for me, and I hope it works for you.

Reply

AJB March 26, 2012 at 10:46 pm

Thanks – you’ve saved me from further heartburn!

Reply

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