How do I stop Word 2007 / 2010 from Double Spacing?

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

It’s Tech Tip Tuesday, AKA Tips from the Help Desk!  Another Word-related tip for you today, because here in the Help Desk, we se calls all the time about our favorite Office products.

 

wordstylesheet

 

In Word 2007, Microsoft changed the formatting to what they consider an easier to read double-spaced format.  They also changed the font to one that, as I understand it, is a little “greener” – as in, when it prints, the the letters are a little thinner meaning they use less ink.  All of these little changes have frustrated people to no end, since it had been previously unchanged since Office ‘97.  So how do you get back to the old format?  It’s easy.

 

Simply Open Microsoft Word, then on the right hand side click on Change Styles, choose Style Set, then select Word 2003 from the bottom of the list.  And just like that, you’re back to the old Single Spaced format, and if you want, you can even change back to Times New Roman font.  If you want it to be like this every time you open up Office from now on, just click the Change Styles button again and choose Set as Default.

 

There is another way to adjust the spacing (under the Home tab in the Ribbon menu at the top of the screen, click the Line Spacing button in the Paragraph group).  But I have actually found this not to work as well as simply changing the default style sheet.

 

One more tip: if you’re okay with the default Word 2007/2010 layout, but you would like the ability to just insert a single space every now and then, instead of being forced to always use a double space, you can simply hold the SHIFT key while you press the ENTER key.  This will bring you to the line immediately beneath where you are and might look a little better on certain occasions.

 

Now go forth and be productive!