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Home > Microsoft > How to Double Space in Word? 4 Easy Ways

How to Double Space in Word? 4 Easy Ways

(Note: This guide on how to double space in Word is suitable for all MS Word versions including Office 365)

There are a lot of ways in Microsoft Word (MS Word) to improve the readability scale. One such way to improve the readability of the text is to use double spacing in Word. 

Double spacing increases the space between the lines of texts. If you are a teacher or an editor you might have to write or read through a large amount of text. It would be a little hard to read through the text efficiently when they are crammed together. 

In such cases, it would be easier to skim and get the whole picture of the context or leave comments and suggestions when there is a little distance between the text.

In this article, I will show you how to double space in Word to improve the readability using 4 easy methods.

You’ll Learn:

  • 4 Easy Ways To Apply Double Spacing in MS Word
    • From Design Dropdown
    • From Line and Paragraph Spacing
    • From Modify option
    • Using Shortcut Keys

Watch this short video to learn how to Double Space in Word

Related:

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4 Easy Ways To Double Space in Word

1. From Design Dropdown

  • Open the word document you want to apply double spacing. 
  • Navigate to Design in the main menu. Under Document Formatting, click on the dropdown in Paragraph Spacing. Select Double from the drop-down.
How to double space in word using design dropdown
How to double space in word using design dropdown

This formats the whole document with double spaces in between the lines and paragraphs.

The selected content is double spaces
The selected content is double spaces

One drawback of this method is that you can only use it to double-space the whole document. You cannot space any particular text or paragraphs using this method.

Note: The main purpose of double-spacing is to improve the readability of the content. You can also choose any other spacing options (tight, compact, open, or relaxed) from the Paragraph Spacing drop-down based on your preferences.

Other spacing options
Other spacing options
  • Additionally, you can also set the default spacing between the text, line, paragraph, and heading in an extensive manner by clicking on the Custom Paragraph Spacing from the Paragraph Spacing dropdown.
Custom paragraph spacing option
Custom paragraph spacing option
  • Under Paragraph Spacing, from the After: dropdown you can select the spacing to Double. Additionally, you can change the font, size, color, alignment, and spacing manually by providing a set value.

Also, when working on multiple documents you don’t have to set the extensive spacing for every single document. Just check the New documents based on this template and the same spacing changes will be applied to all documents.

2. From Line and Paragraph Spacing

There might be instances where you won’t need to double-space the whole document. You might only need to double space a part of the paragraph, or a text to show emphasis or importance to that part.

For such cases, you can double-space any selected text from the paragraph instead of the whole document.

  • Select all the text you want to add double-spaces to. 
How to double space in word using line and paragraph spacing
How to double space in word using line and paragraph spacing
  • Now navigate to Home, under Paragraph, click on the Line and Paragraph Spacing icon
  • Now, select 2.0.
Select 2.0
Select 2.0
  • The selected text will be formatted with double spacing between the lines.
  • For extensive customization of the spacing, click on Line Spacing Options from the Line and Paragraph Spacing dropdown.
  • This opens up a dialog box. From the Line Spacing dropdown, click on Double for double line spacing. 
Add double from paragraphing options
Add double from paragraphing options

There are also other options for spacing, indentations, and page breaks in the Paragraphs dialog box. You can customize them to your desired preferences. 

You can see the preview text in the Preview pane below. Additionally, you can apply the same spacing to other word documents too. Just click on Set As Default to set the spacing option to default for other word documents.

Also Read:

Using Tables in Word

Working with Page Breaks in Microsoft Word

How to Make a Checklist in Word? 3 Simple Steps

3. From Modify option

Another way to set the double spacing and add customization to spaces is to use the Modify option in Styles. You can set the spacing for both the selected text and the whole document using this option.

  • Navigate to Home.
  • Under Styles, right-click on any of the styles. In most cases, Normal will be the default style but you can select any style depending on your document.
  • Right-click on any of the styles and select Modify.
How to double space in word using modify option
How to double space in word using modify option

This opens up a Modify styles dialog box. In the dialog box, select the double-spacing option to enable double spacing to the text.

Double space using Modify option
Double space using Modify option

You can also change the before and after paragraph spacings, indentations, and alignment. Also, you can make the changes to the text or apply them as a default spacing for other documents.

4. Using Shortcut Keys

This is the easiest method to add double spaces to the text. You can add double spacing to the text by using shortcut keys. 

This works both on the paragraphs and the selected text. If you use the shortcut keys without selecting any text, the space is applied to the paragraph with the cursor. 

  • Select the text you want to add double spaces.
  • Press Ctrl+2. This adds double spaces to the selected text.
Double space using shortcut keys
Double space using shortcut keys

Note: You can also add a single space(1) or a space of 1.5 by pressing Ctrl+1 and Ctrl+5 respectively. 

Suggested Reads:

The Most Used Microsoft Word Shortcuts – Download

How to Create Hyperlinks in Microsoft Word 2013

Using Settings and Preferences in Microsoft Word 2013

Frequently Asked Questions

Where do I find the option to double space in Word?

To double space between text in Microsoft Word, select the Double option from Paragraph Spacing dropdown or select 2.0 from Line and Paragraph Spacing dropdown.

What is double spacing in Word?

Users often get confused with the term double spacing in Microsoft Word. To double space in Word is to extend the spacing between two lines of text in a word document.

What is 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 spacings in Word called?

In Microsoft Word, 1.0 spacing is called single spacing.1.5 is called one and half spacing and 2.0 is called double spacing.

Final Thoughts

Double spacing boosts the readability and presentability of the text in your Word document, especially when the content is extended for multiple pages.

In this article, we saw how to add double space in Word using 4 methods. These methods are similar and you can use the method that is approachable. (Kbeautypharm) Use the method that suits you the best. 

For more high-quality guides on MS Word or Excel, please visit our free resources section. 

SimonSezIT has been effectively teaching Excel for 15 years. We have a very comprehensive set of courses with in-depth training modules covering all major business software. 

You can access all these 130+ courses for a low monthly fee. Please visit our courses section for more information about our offers.

Simon Calder

Chris “Simon” Calder was working as a Project Manager in IT for one of Los Angeles’ most prestigious cultural institutions, LACMA. He taught himself to use Microsoft Project from a giant textbook and hated every moment of it. Online learning was in its infancy then, but he spotted an opportunity and made an online MS Project course - the rest, as they say, is history!

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