Put each line in a cell then adjust the row heights until they are as close as you need. Tables are the secret trick for all Word nerds. We usually settle for something in the 0.7 to 0.8 range to get the lines close together without clipping the tops of letters. Reduce the line spacing too much and the letters will be cut off. Try out various line spacing fractions until you get what you need. Set the Multiple line spacing value to less than one eg 0.7 To set less than 1 line space go to Paragraph | Line Spacing and choose ‘Multiple’ – yes ‘Multiple’. If those options don’t work, it’s time to break out the major nerd tricks. Just below those choices is “Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style”.Ĭhecking that box will remove the before and after spacing, assuming both lines have the same style. Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style Maybe all you need to do is reduce one or both of those. Open the paragraph spacing dialog from the little button at bottom right of the Paragraph section of the ribbon.Ĭheck the Spacing, Before or After settings. Turn ‘Show all’ on (Home | Paragraph | Show All) to see both Paragraph marks (the reverse P or pilcrow, left) and line breaks (angled arrow, right). Paragraph Break vs Line BreakĪ simple way to reduce the line spacing is to switch from the usual Paragraph Break (pressing Enter) for a Line Break (Shift + Enter)Ī Line Break will usually make a smaller gap between two lines. Instead a few options to check and adjust until you get what you want. Selecting a line shows the amount of space Word has allocated above and below the line. The left example has selected the top line. Here’s an example of standard line spacing (left) and very close spacing (right).
It becomes useful when trying some design tricks for headings, for example the title in our Millennium poster. Have a question for Angela (writing/publishing) or Richard (marketing)? Contact us here.Reducing the line spacing or vertical gap between lines in Word paragraphs can be done in six different ways depending on the situationĪdjusting line spacing to put lines very close isn’t usually necessary for regular text. (If you view the paragraphs with the Show option still on, you won’t be able to easily see the spacing errors.) When you find another problem, simply click, rinse, and repeat all over again, per the paragraphs above. (It can be a tedious job to fix each and every one!)Īfter you fix one paragraph, turn off the show/hide button, and review more pages until you find another errant paragraph with weird spacing. In our experience, those don’t need to be fixed. Now, some paragraphs in your book will have those empty zeroes and you won’t notice any spacing errors at all. After you remove all the odd characters from the line, your spacing between words will be even. To do that, simply put your cursor after the odd character, click your backspace key, and then click your space bar. You want to get rid of the odd characters and replace them with the plain black dot. We occasionally see what appears to be a tiny, microscopic apostrophe, which causes problems, too. But, in some places, you will see the what look like empty circles. When you do this, you will be able to see the odd symbols that are causing the annoying spacing errors.īetween most words, you’ll see a plain black dot.
This is necessary because the symbols are so tiny. Next, click the “View” option in MSWord and Zoom to 200%. You can also click View, and then see the Show/Hide option.
Here is one example where the button looks like a paragraph symbol. Different versions of the program have different buttons/options for finding that option. There is a fix, however!įirst, in your document, go to the affected paragraph, and then click on the show/hide option in MSWord. The problem you’re describing is one we see on occasion. Copying and pasting text from one program to another (and even saving from an old version of a program to a newer one) always carries somewhat of a risk. The errors you’re seeing are being caused by something inserted by your version of MSWord, or perhaps even from a previous program. Luckily, many of these gremlins can be fixed with a little creativity. Can you help?Īfter formatting thousands of books for over the past 16 years, I’ve seen pretty much every bug MSWord can throw our way. Why are some of the spaces between words in my fully-justified manuscript uneven? There are normal spaces between most words, and weird, long spaces between others…on the same line of text! It doesn’t make any sense.