Adjust paragraph spacing

Word gives us lots of ways to adjust the spacing around our text. In a previous lesson we looked at line spacing, and now we’ll look at paragraph spacing as well.

“Paragraph spacing” refers to the distance between paragraphs of text. The default is 0pt before the paragraph, and 8pt after the paragraph. “pt” in this context is simply a unit of measurement (technically it is 1/72 of an inch). It’s the same unit of measurement used for the size of your font (remember this lesson about changing font size).

There are two ways you can change the paragraph spacing.

Paragraph options

  1. Put your mouse cursor in the paragraph you wish to adjust.
  2. Go to Home > the small arrow next to “Paragraph”
  3. This will open a Paragraph Settings box. Here you can change your paragraph spacing to the desired amounts.

Practice point: Use this method to change the paragraph spacing of the first paragraph of text, to 12pt before and 30pt after. It should look something like this:

Layout > Spacing

Let’s try doing the same thing, but taking a different route.

  1. Put your mouse cursor in the paragraph you wish to adjust.
  2. Go to Layout > Spacing
  3. Adjust the paragraph spacing to your desired amounts.

Practice point: Use this method to change the paragraph spacing of the first paragraph of text, to 18pt before and 24pt after. It should look something like this:

The space above and below the paragraph has increased.

Pro tip: Remember that you can quickly return your paragraph to the default style (including paragraph spacing) by going to Home > Normal. We covered this in the lesson “Getting a bit fancy – altering heading styles“.

Great work, !

Now that you’ve conquered some essential formatting skills, you’re about half way through this course. Good going!

Before moving on, have a look at the checklist below. You should be able to do all these things now. If not, go back through this lesson and practice some more. When you feel comfortable that you’ve got these things sorted, tick them off and move on to the next lesson.

[checklist_in_post]
  • Change page margins
  • Change paper orientation
  • Change paper size
  • Create columns
  • Adjust paragraph spacing
[/checklist_in_post]

Save your answer before continuing onto the next lesson.