Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Double-Spacing Your Document.

Double-Spacing Your Document

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 10, 2018)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


If you are writing for a living, you already know that many publishers require a printed copy of your manuscript to be submitted double-spaced. This allows them to manually edit the manuscript prior to typesetting. (Yes, there are still some publishers who do not edit manuscripts on-line. Sad, but true.) As you are writing, you probably will want to keep your manuscript single-spaced so you can see more of it on the screen at a time. When you are ready to print, there is a quick way to double-space your document:

  1. Save your document.
  2. Press Ctrl+A or choose Select All from the Edit menu.
  3. Choose Paragraph from the Format menu. Word displays the Paragraph dialog box. Notice that none of the fields are filled in. This is because you have selected the entire document, and no single paragraph setting applies to the entire document. (See Figure 1.)
  4. Figure 1. The Paragraph dialog box.

  5. Choose Double in the Line Spacing box.
  6. Click on OK.
  7. Print your document.
  8. Close your document without saving.

This last step is important. If you save your document before exiting, then the double spacing will be permanently saved with the document, as well.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1032) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Double-Spacing Your Document.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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