Hello, my name is Erin.
This tutorial shows how to adjust paragraph spacing in Microsoft Word.
First, we will change the spacing before and after individual paragraphs.
Then, we will adjust the space before and after all the paragraphs in a document.
Don't miss the brief discussion at the end about Word's built-in paragraph spacing options
and why you may not want to use them.
These steps don't affect the line spacing within the individual paragraphs.
For information about line spacing, please see my previous tutorial
“How to Adjust Line Spacing in Microsoft Word,” which is linked below.
Today I’ll be using Word for Microsoft 365.
These steps also apply to the one-time-purchase versions of the software back to Word 2013.
If you’re on a Mac, please see this tutorial’s companion video
“How to Adjust Paragraph Spacing in Word for Mac,” which is also linked below.
To adjust spacing before and after individual paragraphs, begin by selecting the Home tab.
Although it’s not required to do so, I suggested selecting the Show/Hide button in the Paragraph group
to reveal your formatting marks, including paragraph marks.
Next, select the paragraph or paragraphs you want to adjust.
And then select the Line and Paragraph Spacing button in the Paragraph group.
From there, you can select Add Space Before Paragraph or Remove Space After Paragraph from the drop-down menu.
Alternatively, you will have the option to select Remove Space Before Paragraph
or Add Space After Paragraph if the paragraph spacing has already been adjusted.
The size of the adjustment will be based on the paragraph’s current font size.
For more control, select Line Spacing Options instead.
When the Paragraph dialog box appears, enter an amount into the Before or After text box.
Avoid entering numbers in the Before and After text boxes at the same time
because multiple adjustments may cause unwanted results.
Next, ensure that "Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style" is not selected.
And then select the OK button.
The spacing should be adjusted for your selected paragraphs.
If you chose to reveal your formatting marks earlier, you can now reselect the Show/Hide button to hide the marks.
Now we’re going to adjust the paragraph spacing for the entire document without affecting the spacing for headings.
To begin, select the Design tab.
And then select the Paragraph Spacing button in the Document Formatting group.
Next, select Custom Paragraph Spacing from the drop-down menu.
When the Manage Styles dialog box appears, enter an amount into the Before or After text box.
Once again, avoid entering numbers in the Before and After text boxes at the same time
because multiple adjustments may cause unwanted results.
When you are finished, select the OK button.
The paragraph spacing should be adjusted for the entire document.
And, the heading spacing should not be affected.
In the previous section you may have noticed that the Paragraph Spacing drop-down menu in the Design tab
includes six built-in options.
You can use these options instead of custom paragraph spacing.
However, you may not want to do so because these options will also adjust the line spacing within your paragraphs.
Regardless of how you choose to adjust your paragraph spacing, remember to save your file to save your changes.
I have created many other videos about Microsoft Word including “Three Ways to Indent Paragraphs in Microsoft Word.”
And “How to Adjust Letter Spacing in Microsoft Word (PC & Mac).”
Please see the complete list in the playlist titled “How to Use Microsoft Word,” which is linked in the description box below.
All the steps we just performed are listed with images on erinwrightwriting.com,
along with all my other writing-related software tutorials to help you succeed at work and in the classroom.
Feel free to leave me a comment if there’s a specific topic that you would like me to talk about in the future.
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Thank you so much for watching!
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