Formatting paragraphs in Word

Question

Someone please tell me how to set single spacing as the default in Word. I have followed the directions at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/single-space-the-lines-in-a-document-e96fa086-3f36-415e-8a7c-b4690ad94b92 to no avail. I've set it for the current document only and as a default for all documents and nothing changes. I can't even manually delete the unwanted lines as Word doesn't place any there.

What happens is the exact paragraph I happen to have the cursor on when I try to set it to single space is set to single space. But ONLY that paragraph, even if I have the entire document selected. All paragraphs before and after are still set at the old default. Then when I go to the next paragraph to set that one, the one I just set is returned to the old setting.

Edition Windows 10 Pro

Version 21H2

Installed on ‎10/‎25/‎2020

OS build 19044.1415

Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.3920.0

Here's another can of worms I inadvertently opened.

Microsoft® Word for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2110 Build 16.0.14527.20234) 64-bit

While looking for the version of Office I have installed, I noticed there are updates ready. However, attempts to update failed with error code 30015-28 (2231435265). When I attempted to run a repair following the directions to do so at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/fix-office-update-errors-fc3fbdaa-e3cc-4a9f-a6d4-4eaf0441daa8?ns=ocsac2rupdate&version=16&syslcid=1033&uilcid=1033&appver=cup160&helpid=%222231435265-28-30015%22&ui=en-us&rs=en-us&ad=us , I am unable to right click on Office to run a repair. I'm going to stop here, because this endeavor keeps getting bigger every time I try to do something.

Answer 1

Open a new document and then in the Styles Gallery, right click on the Normal Style and then on Modify

Then in the Modify Style dialog, click on the Format dropdown and then on paragraph and select Single from the Line Spacing dropdown. Then click on OK and BEFORE clicking on OK to close the Modify Style dialog, select the radio button for "New documents based on this template"

Answer 2

Thank you for the prompt reply. I'm afraid it did not solve the issue. But I just had the thought that perhaps what I'm wanting isn't possible any more. I want the enter key to take me to the very next line every time I key it, whether I am making a list or even typing a paragraph. This is probably due to the fact that I learned to type before there was such a thing as a text editor and I don't wait for the app to wrap to the next line. I want this behavior to just be the default for whenever I hit the enter key no matter what kind of document or text I am using. Now, I know this was possible because previous versions of Word allowed me to specify this as the default. I can force it to happen by hitting Ctrl+Enter at each place I want to start a new line, but I shouldn't have to do that. Right now, that's the only thing that works.

I can use the method you showed in your reply, or I can simply select the text and right click on it and go to the paragraph settings and make the changes there. It's a different way to get to the same place and there are probably other routes to that same setting. The problem is that the settings are not saving or otherwise taking effect. I'll make the change, then go back to writing and see the change isn't happening. I'll then go back to change it again and the settings are back to default. It doesn't matter where I make the change, the change doesn't happen. I suspect there is an issue which requires a repair of the office installation, but I'm unable to do that either. I explained that in my original post.

Am I left with having no other recourse but to uninstall Office and then reinstalling it? Is there a way to get a totally complete uninstall followed by a new clean installation?

Answer 3

This is a follow up to update on my latest steps in trying to resolve this issue. Since I was unable to do a repair, I uninstalled Office, rebooted, and then reinstalled Office. There were errors and I'm afraid I didn't screenshot the popup, but then the main installation window claimed success that it had been installed. I immediately went to Word and checked the paragraph line spacing settings and amazingly it is showing single spacing as the default. Yay!

But I still am getting a double space when I hit the Enter key. The only way to actually get a single space is to Ctrl+Enter. Sorry, not acceptable.

So I tried one more thing and it finally worked. I'm including all of this so that if someone else has a similar issue, perhaps this might help them. There is another setting that I had previously overlooked and it made all the difference. Just below the line spacing settings, is a check box to specify "Don't add space between paragraphs of the same style." I checked that box and now have genuine single spacing for everything.

Answer 4

With the Spacing Before: and After: set to 0 pt and Single Line spacing

you should not get an empty line between lines of text if you press the Enter key only once - even without having a check mark in the box for "Don't add space between paragraphs of the same style"

I would suggest that you turn on the display of non-printing characters via File>Option>Display (or by clicking on the Pilcrow ¶ button in the Paragraph section of the Home tab of the ribbon) so that you can see what is in the space between the lines of text.

Answer 5

Shift+Enter inserts a line break; Ctrl+Enter (unless you have modified the keyboard shortcut) inserts a page break, which I assume is not what you want. Modifying the format of a single paragraph changes only that paragraph and any subsequent ones you type. To change the spacing for all paragraphs, you must modify the Normal style, and, for this to affect new documents, you must select the radio button for "New documents based on this template."