Triple-Spacing Your Document

If you ever have a need to triple-space your document before printing it, Word provides an easy way to do this. If possible, you should keep your document in the format in which you view it on the screen, and only format it for triple spacing before you actually print. To print a triple-spaced version of your document, do the following:

1. Save your document.
2. Press Ctrl+A to select the entire document.
3. Choose Format | Paragraph. Word displays the Paragraph dialog box. (See Figure 1.) You may notice that some of the fields in the dialog box are not filled in. This is because you have selected the entire document, and no single paragraph setting applies to the entire document.



Figure 1. The Paragraph dialog box.

4. In the Spacing area, choose Multiple in the Line Spacing drop-down list.
5. Change the At setting (to the right of the Line Spacing drop-down list) to 3.
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 triple spacing will be permanently saved with the document, as well.

If you have the Line Spacing tool on the toolbar, then there is another way you can apply triple spacing. (If you are using a version of Word that does not display the Line Spacing tool by default you can use the customization capabilities of Word to add it.) Follow these steps:

1. Save your document.
2. Press Ctrl+A.
3. Click the down-arrow at the right side of the Line Spacing tool. A number of spacing options appear.
4. Choose 3. Your entire document is triple spaced.
5. Print your document.
6. Close your document without saving.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1089) 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: Triple-Spacing Your Document.