If you have been using earlier versions of Word, you have probably been frustrated in
2007/2010 with the default line spacing creating a whole line space between each line of
text, like I have done here.
This blog is not about how to change the space between lines but how to change the space between lines when you hit the Enter key or your text runs to the next line. You don’t want it to look like you have started a new paragraph at each line of text.
It seems that this spacing is now “Normal”, but personally I question if it really is! If you are like me, you will want to use the “No Spacing” setting for all of your documents. Sure you might also fiddle with Styles, the space between lines, fonts etc etc but for me the line spacing when I hit Enter / Return was a big annoyance.
So, to change it is easy right? You have been through all the menus looking for where to set this as the default for new documents and you are probably here reading this because you haven’t yet found where you set this default. Well, it is easy when you know how so let’s go and do it now.
Open Word
Select the File menu, select Open
When you are presented with the menu, double click the Templates folder (you might have to scroll up a little to see the “Templates” folder) to navigate to the files within.
Now that you are in the Templates folder, you will need to find, then double click on “Normal.dotm” to open the file (Note, you may not be able to see the .dotm on the end depending upon how your computer is setup).
With this file now open, make all the changes to it to that you would like to see as “normal” when you open a New Word document. You will certainly change the pesky line spacing to “No Spacing” but you might also change the Font and/or the Font size to your liking. You can pretty much change what you like.
Once you have made your changes, click the File menu, then click on Save. Now each time you open Word, your line spacing will be as you want it.
Open a new blank document and you should see that everything is as you wanted it to be.
