You can improve the readability of your text by adjusting the spacing, or leading (pronounced "ledding"), between the lines. Too little space makes the lines of text looked squashed together and difficult to read; too much space also makes the text difficult to read because the reader’s eye has to search for the beginning of the next line.
Click in a paragraph, or select all the paragraphs whose line spacing you want to set.
If you don’t see the spacing you want, click Line Spacing Options.
On the Indents And Spacing tab of the Paragraph dialog box, select the line spacing you want:Exactly to create a specified space between lines regardless of the font size used
At Least to create a minimum space between lines, which can increase if you use large font sizes
Multiple to specify how many lines of space you want between the lines of text
Use the arrows or type a value. For Exactly and At Least settings, this is a distance measurement, usually in points; for Multiple, this is the number of lines of space. Click OK.
- Click in a paragraph, or select all the paragraphs for which you want to set the spacing.
Click the option for adding space before or after the paragraph or paragraphs.- If you want to customize the spacing, click Line Spacing Options to display the Paragraph dialog box.
- In the Before and After boxes, use the arrows or type a value for the space before (above) the first line of the paragraph and for the space after (below) the last line of the paragraph.
- Select this check box if you don’t want space between paragraphs of the same style.
If you want to remove the space before or after the selected paragraph or paragraphs, click the Line Spacing button again, and choose Remove Space Before Paragraph or Remove Space After Paragraph from the menu.
Caution
Note that the distance between two paragraphs is the sum of the space below the first paragraph and the space above the second paragraph. Keep this in mind so that you don’t end up with a bigger space between paragraphs than the space you intended.
Tip
Some commonly used keyboard shortcuts are for line spacing and "space-before" spacing. Press Ctrl+1 for single spacing, Ctrl+5 for 1.5 line spacing, Ctrl+2 for double spacing, and Ctrl+0 (zero) for 1 line before the paragraph. Ctrl+0 is a toggle, so you can use it to change a paragraph from 1 line before to no lines before.