How to Double Space in Word — Line Spacing 1.0, 1.15, 2.0 and the Gap Between Paragraphs

Double space a document — Ctrl+A, then 2.0

Open the practice file, a short essay set in 12-pt Times New Roman with single line spacing and 8 pt after every paragraph. Let's double space all of it.

1. 1Press Ctrl+A to select the whole document. (To change one paragraph, just click inside it.)
2. 2Go to Home > Paragraph > Line and Paragraph Spacing — the button with an up-down arrow next to lines.
3. 3Choose 2.0. The change is immediate.

The same menu lists 1.0, 1.15, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0, then Line Spacing Options… and the Add/Remove Space Before and After Paragraph commands. If you prefer the keyboard, the shortcuts are faster: in Word I looked up which command each key runs — Ctrl+2 is double spacing, Ctrl+1 single, and Ctrl+5 1.5 lines.

What 1.0, 1.15, 1.5 and 2.0 actually measure

The numbers mean 'times the font's normal line height'. I put the same paragraph in four common fonts and measured the distance between lines from the vertical position Word reports for each line (Space After set to 0).

So 2.0 really is twice 1.0, but 'single spacing' isn't a fixed number of points — it depends on the font. That's why a document can gain or lose pages when you change the font even though the line spacing setting stays the same.

Why there's still extra space between paragraphs

Line spacing controls the lines inside a paragraph. The gap between paragraphs comes from Space Before and Space After. In the practice file every paragraph has 8 pt after it, so even after you pick 2.0 the paragraphs sit a little further apart than the lines.

• Remove it in one click: Line and Paragraph Spacing > Remove Space After Paragraph. When Space After is already 0, the same item reads Add Space After Paragraph
• Don't use blank lines (Enter twice) to space paragraphs — each blank line is a paragraph of its own and gets double spaced too
• Break a line without a new paragraph with Shift+Enter. With 8 pt after, lines split by Shift+Enter were 15 pt apart; lines split by Enter were 22.5 pt apart
• Same style, no gap: in the Paragraph dialog, Don't add space between paragraphs of the same style closed the gap from 22.5 pt to 15 pt in my test

Exactly, At least, Multiple — the Paragraph dialog

For a value that isn't in the menu, open the Paragraph dialog: Line Spacing Options… at the bottom of the menu, or the small arrow in the corner of the Paragraph group. Under Spacing you'll find Before, After, Line spacing and At.

Make double spacing the default

Set the values you want in the Paragraph dialog and click Set As Default. Microsoft's instructions say Word then asks whether to apply it to this document only or to all documents based on the Normal template — choose the second to get it in every new document.

Practice

Turn the practice essay into a double spaced paper like the answer file.

1. 1Press Ctrl+A, then Ctrl+2 (or Line and Paragraph Spacing > 2.0).
2. 2With everything still selected, choose Line and Paragraph Spacing > Remove Space After Paragraph.
3. 3Open the Paragraph dialog and check that Line spacing says Double and After says 0 pt.

In the answer file every paragraph, including the title, is double spaced with 0 pt before and after, and body paragraphs also start with a 0.5-inch first-line indent — that part comes in the next lesson.

FAQ