How to Fix Spacing in Word

Spruce up the formatting in your Word docs

By Robert Earl Wells III
Updated on February 20, 2022
Reviewed by
Lisa Mildon
Lisa Mildon
Reviewed by Lisa Mildon
  • Southern New Hampshire University
Lisa Mildon is a Lifewire writer and an IT professional with 30 years of experience. Her writing has appeared in Geekisphere and other publications.
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What to Know

  • To fix spacing between words, go to Find and Replace. Enter a space in both fields, then go to More > Format > Font and choose a font size.
  • To adjust spacing between characters, go to Home, select Expand (the down-arrow) next to Font, and select the Advanced tab.
  • To change spacing between lines, go to Home and select Expand (the down-arrow) next to Paragraph and adjust the Spacing options.

This article explains how to fix spacing in Word 2021, 2019, 2016, and Word for Microsoft 365.

How to Fix Spacing Between Words in Word

Using different fonts or font sizes in your document can lead to inconsistent spacing between words. Follow these steps to adjust the spacing between words without affecting the space between letters:

To show paragraph breaks and spaces, go to the Home tab and select the Show/Hide icon (¶) in the Paragraph group.

  1. Highlight the text you want to change and select the Home tab. Press Ctrl+A (Windows) or Cmd+A (Mac) to highlight the entire document.

    Home tab and highlighted text in Microsoft Word

  2. Select Replace in the Editing group.

    On Mac, go to Edit > Find > Advanced Find and Replace, then select the Replace tab.


    Replace in the Microsoft Word Editing Group

  3. Click in the Find what text field and press your spacebar to create a space.

    Find What field of Replace box in Word

  4. Click in the Replace with field and press your spacebar to create a space.

    Replace with field of Find and Replace box in Word

  5. Select More to expand the window.

    More button in Microsoft Word Find and Replace menu

  6. Select Format and choose Font.

    Format and Font in Microsoft Word Find and Replace window

  7. Under Size, choose the font size you use most consistently throughout the document, then select OK.

    Size in Font tab in Microsoft Word Find and Replace Window

  8. Select Replace All.

    Replace All in Microsoft Word Find and Replace Window

  9. In a new window, Word will report the number of replacements. Select Yes to apply changes to the entire document, or select No to change only the highlighted text.

    Yes in Microsoft Word Find and Replace Notification

The spacing between words should now be consistent. You can now close the Find and Replace window.

Don't add multiple spaces between words because it makes formatting the entire document more difficult.

You can justify text in Word if you want to expand word spacing so the right margin is always straight (like a newspaper column).

How Do I Fix Spacing Between Characters?

To adjust the spacing between characters (letters, numbers, symbols, etc.), follow these steps:

  1. Highlight the text you want to change and select the Home tab.

    Home tab and highlighted text in Microsoft Word

  2. Next to Font, select Expand (the down-arrow).

    Expand icon in Paragraph group in Microsoft Word

  3. Go to the Advanced tab. To stretch or compress the text, increase or decrease Scaling. For Spacing, choose Expanded or Condensed to adjust the spacing between all characters.

    Select Kerning for fonts to enable text kerning. This feature automatically adjusts the spacing between characters to be more aesthetically pleasing. You can choose to kern characters above a certain size.

    Advanced and Expanded in Microsoft Word Font options

How to Fix Line Spacing in Word

Follow these steps to change the amount of space between lines within a paragraph:

To adjust the spacing between paragraphs, go to the Design tab, select Paragraph Spacing and choose from the options. For single spacing, choose No Paragraph Space.

  1. Highlight the text you want to change and select the Home tab.

    Home tab and highlighted text in Microsoft Word

  2. Next to Paragraph, select Expand (the down-arrow).

    Expand icon in Paragraph group in Microsoft Word

  3. In the Spacing section, manually set the amount of space before and after line breaks, or choose one of the options under Line spacing. Select the Line and Page Breaks tab for more advanced options like text wrapping and pagination settings.

    When you're done, select OK to save changes.

    Line spacing in Microsoft Word Paragraph Options

Section breaks can throw off spacing. Press Ctrl+Shift+8 to show paragraph marks so you can remove extra breaks in Word.

FAQ
  • How do I change the tab spacing in Word?

    The quickest way to set tab stops is to click the ruler where you want a tab. Alternatively, go to the Home tab and select Paragraph Settings in the Paragraph group. Next, select the Tabs button. Finally, set the desired Tab stop position, click Set, and click OK.

  • How do I fix the spacing between bullet points in Word?

    To change line spacing between bullets in a list, select the list and then click the Paragraph Dialog Box Launcher. On the Indents and Spacing tab, under Spacing, clear the Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style check box.

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