Word 2007’s extra space
If, like me, you are tearing your hair out because Word 2007 keeps adding an extra line after every paragraph (or hard return) when you just want a single line, there’s a permanent fix. It’s not hard to see that you can click on the “line spacing” button on the Ribbon to change the “Remove space before paragraph” option. This will stop Word from adding the extra line for that document only, though.
There are a couple of ways to turn off the extra space permanently. One is to edit the Normal.dot template. About.com has easy step-by-step instructions to do this. I’ve tried it and it works.
Or, you can go to the “source” – Microsoft – which has a different solution. Roll back your Word version to 2003. Yes, to fix the line spacing and paragraph spacing in Word 2007 so that it is the same as in earlier versions of Word, you have to change the Style Set option. Here’s how:
- Click the Home tab.
- Click Change Styles in the Styles group, point to Style Set, and then click the style set that you want to use.To change the default formatting of your document, such as the line spacing and paragraph spacing, to the default formatting that is used in earlier versions of Word, click Word 2003.
- To set the style set as the default style set in Word 2007, click Change Styles in the Styles group, and then click Set as Default.
- Sigh with relief.
When you modify Word in this way, you are attempting to impose WordPerfect’s character-based formatting on an application that bases its formatting by paragraph. By doing this you disable one of Word’s most powerful features: styles. The reason Word adds the line after a hard return (it’s actually a 12-point space) is because the “normal” paragraph style is whatever default font your selected style set has; no paragraph indent; and 12-point spacing between paragraphs. If you don’t like this format, change it in Paragraph (on the 2007 ribbon). F’rinstance, select first line indent, justified alignment, single space, and no spacing between paragraphs. Apply, then select your newly formatted paragraph. Right-click the “Normal” style on the ribbon and select “update normal to match selection.” It will become your default normal style. (There are other steps to make this change “stick” when you create a new document, but I won’t go there now.)
If you are manually adding a tab at the beginning of the paragraph and an extra hard return at the end, you may as well use notepad as your word processor. If you want to become a Word lover you must learn styles.