Share via

How do I default to 2 spaces after a period in word?

Anonymous
2011-11-22T14:39:19+00:00

I'm wondering if I am able to change the default to 2 spaces after a period.  Anyone know if this is possible in Word Starter?

Thanks

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

Answer accepted by question author

  1. Suzanne S Barnhill 277.2K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2011-11-22T15:02:27+00:00

    There isn't any way to do this automatically in any version of Word, and in any case it's not recommended unless you are using a monospaced font (such as Courier New). What you can do in most versions of Word (and I assume this includes Starter) is this:

    1. Click on File and then Options.
    2. In the Options window, choose the Proofing tab.
    3. Under "When correcting spelling and grammar in Word," click the Settingsbutton.
    4. Under Require, select "2" for "Spaces required between sentences, then click OK.
    5. Click OK to exit the Options.

    If you have "Check grammar as you type" enabled, I think this will cause instances of a single space after a period to be marked with a wavy green underline. Otherwise, you'll just get a notice when you explicitly run a spelling and grammar check (you must have "Check grammar with spelling" enabled).

    In other words, this will not force Word to do anything; it will just serve as a reminder to you, by flagging places where you have the "wrong" number of spaces.

    50+ people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments

7 additional answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2015-04-28T07:34:56+00:00

    If you want to automatically add two spaces after every period, do this.

    File->Options->Proofing->Autocorrect options...

    Then, in the AutoCorrect tab of the AutoCorrect dialog, type (without the quotation marks)

    "." into the Replace text box, and ".  " into the With text box

    (i.e., replace a period with a period and two spaces).

    However, you might find this less than satisfying, for the following reasons:

    1. You will need to set up similar AutoCorrects for other punctuation (? ! etc).
    2. It is seriously going to mess up your abbreviations, and you will have to manually correct those. So if you you don't use many abbreviations, it will be fine, if you do, then rather don't use this.

    As an example (excuse the pun), typing "e.g." with this Autocorrect on will give you "e.  g.  "--not what you want.

    So while it can be done, you might be better served by following Suzanne's recommendation, and also note that some well-crafted wildcard searches can weed out most omissions of this sort quite quickly. Oh, and you probably meant space bar twice, not tab bar twice!  :-)

    6 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2015-04-30T10:35:54+00:00

    Eugene

    The more I think about it, the more I am starting to think that this suggestion of mine is a bad idea.

    Microsoft have integrated the spell-checking and autocorrect tools considerably, with a major milestone in that process being Office 2007. This was a very good thing to do, b.t.w., as it gives you uniform access to spell-checking tools, regardless of which particular application in the Office suite you are working in.

    Suffice it to say that autocorrect entries cannot be saved in a Word document, but are rather saved in *.acl (autocorrect library) files. All the office applications use these libraries. This means that if you create an autocorrect entry in, say, Word, you can start using it immediately in other applications like Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel.

    Now you will realise why I am starting to think that my suggestion of creating an autocorrect entry is not so bright. For example, if you create this, and then try to enter a decimal number in Excel, the autocorrect will also be applied there (e.g., 1.23 will become 1.  23), as well as in Outlook and PowerPoint. That may be too much for your liking.

    2 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2015-04-28T06:10:35+00:00

    I have tried that and it still does not automatically put 2 spaces.

    Guess I will have to learn to hit the tab bar twice. Would think they would have thought about that for APA style.

    2 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  4. Suzanne S Barnhill 277.2K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2015-04-28T12:11:35+00:00

    I did not claim that it would "automatically put 2 spaces." What I said was (I thought) perfectly clear:

    In other words, this will not force Word to do anything; it will just serve as a reminder to you, by flagging places where you have the "wrong" number of spaces.

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments