Applies ToWord for Microsoft 365 Word for Microsoft 365 for Mac Word for the web Word 2024 Word 2024 for Mac Word 2021 Word 2021 for Mac Word 2019 Word 2019 for Mac Word 2016

The default line spacing in Word is 1.15. By default, paragraphs are followed by a blank line and headings have a space above them.

  1. Go to Home > Line and Paragraph Spacing Line and Paragraph Spacing button, and then choose Line Spacing Options.

    Options to change line spacing in Word
  2. Under Spacing, choose an option in the Line spacing box.

    Line spacing options
  3. Adjust the Before and After settings if you want to change spacing between paragraphs.

  4. Select Set as Default.

  5. Choose All documents based on the Normal template.

    Default line spacing dialog

  6. Select OK.

For more info, see Adjust indents and spacing.

The default line spacing in Word is 1.15. By default, paragraphs are followed by a blank line and headings have a space above them.

  1. Go to Home > Line and Paragraph Spacing.

    On the Home tab, Line Spacing is hightlighted

  2. Select Line Spacing Options, and then choose the options you want under Spacing.

    In the Paragraph dialog box, the Spacing section is highlighted

  3. To change the spacing before or after the selected paragraphs, select the arrow next to Before or After and enter the amount of space that you want.

  4. Select Set as Default.

  5. Choose All documents based on the Normal template.

  6. Select OK.

For more info, see Adjust indents and spacing.

You can change the line spacing, but the next time you create a new document, Word for the web reverts back to 1.15 line spacing.

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