how to double space an essay in word

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Double-space the lines in a document

You can double-space all or part of a Word document.

To double-space the whole document, go to Design > Paragraph Spacing , and choose Double .

Single-space the lines in a document

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How to double space in Microsoft Word

Double-spacing the lines of a document can be useful for enhancing readability or leaving room for someone else to add editing annotations. If you need to double space a Microsoft Word document and don't know how, don't worry: We can show you.

How to double space in Word for certain paragraphs

How to double space in word for the entire document.

Here's how to double space in Word.

What You Need

Microsoft Word

It only takes several clicks to double space certain paragraphs in a Microsoft Word document . Here's how to do it:

Step 1: Open your Word document and select the paragraphs you want to double space.

Step 2: Select the Home tab from the Ribbon menu at the top of the screen.

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Step 3: Within the Paragraph section of the Home tab, click on the Line and paragraph spacing icon. (This icon looks like a paragraph with two vertically-oriented arrows to the left of it. The arrows should be pointing in opposite directions.)

Step 4: From the drop-down menu that appears, click on 2.0 . Your selected paragraphs should now be double spaced.

Note: You can also use a variation of this method to double space an entire Word document that's already been written. To do so, use the following keyboard shortcut to select the entire text: Ctrl + A . Then complete steps 2 to 4 as usual.

If you haven't written your Word document yet, but you already know you want it to be double spaced, you can format your whole document ahead of time. This way, your document will automatically be double spaced as you type. Here's how to do that:

Step 1: Open a new Word document.

Step 2: Select the Home tab from the Ribbon menu.

Step 3: Click on the Line and paragraph spacing icon. (This icon is located within the Paragraph section of the Home tab.)

Step 4: From the drop-down menu that appears, select 2.0 . After that, you can begin typing your document, and your lines of text should automatically be double spaced.

Note: You can also use the Design tab to double space your document before writing it. Just open a new document, choose the Design tab, and click on Paragraph spacing . A drop-down menu will appear. From this menu, click on Double . You can then start typing your document and your lines should automatically be double spaced.

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How to Double Space a Word Document

Double spacing your text can make it more legible. Let's look at the different ways to set double spacing in Word.

This article explains how to double space lines, paragraphs, and the entire document in Microsoft Word. There are four ways to double space lines in Microsoft Word. You can use any of these options to modify a few lines or the entire document in Word.

Double Space Lines From the Home Tab

This is the quickest way to double-space your document. You can use this when you want to add double spaces for only part of the document. Select the paragraphs you want to change and follow the steps below.

• Open Microsoft Word.
• Go to the Home > Paragraph group > Select the Line and Paragraph Spacing icon.
• To double space lines, choose 2.0 from the dropdown.
• For more spacing options, select Line Spacing Options in the list.

Double Space Between Paragraphs From the Design Tab

Modify the vertical space between paragraphs in your document by setting the spacing before or after each paragraph. Do note that this applies spacing throughout your entire document and also affects line spacing. It gives you less scope to control line spacing than the other methods here.

• Go to Design > Paragraph Spacing and choose Double .

Double Space Lines From the Page Layout Tab

Use this option to set up double spaced lines before you start adding content to your document. The settings here allow you to finetune your text with other options.

• Go to the Page Layout tab.
• Go to the Paragraph group. Click the tiny down arrow in the bottom right corner to bring up the Paragraph settings dialog.
• Stay on the Indents and Spacing tab.
• Click the down arrow next to the Line spacing box.
• Select Double and click the OK button to exit the dialog box.

Double Space Lines With Styles

Do you write double spaced essays? You can save this as a special style in Word for only essays or modify an existing style.

• Go to the Home > Styles group . Right-click Normal .
• Select Modify from the drop-down menu.
• Under Formatting , click the Double Space button.

What Does Double Spaced Lines Mean?

Line spacing is nothing but the height of the space between each row of text. A double space means sentences will have a blank line equal to the full height of two lines of text between each line. By default, most word processors have single spacing enabled (or slightly more than single spacing), which is space that’s just one line high. Word has a default line spacing of 1.08 .

Line spacing is an important style consideration and just one of the ways to format your text for better legibility.