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: Getting a Double-Spaced Printout.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated October 13, 2020)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003
It is not uncommon to need a double-spaced printout of a document while you are developing it. However, it can be bothersome to save the document as double-spaced, particularly if the need for double-spacing is only temporary (meaning your final document will be single-spaced). If you need an easy way to print a double-spaced document, follow these quick steps:
This last step is particularly important; if you save your document it will be permanently double-spaced. Unless you really want it that way, make sure you close 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 (1447) 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: Getting a Double-Spaced Printout.
The First and Last Word on Word! Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate Word 2013. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2013 For Dummies today!
Want to print just the current page? Word can do it, if you know how.
Discover MoreWord allows you to send your output to a file instead of to a printer. This tip shows you how.
Discover MoreWith a printer (and printer driver) that understand PostScript, you can do some nifty drawings directly to the paper, ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
2014-12-20 05:20:05
This is a very useful tip as a shortcut for changing line spacing regardless of printing and it prompted me to try this for spacings other than double - with rather mixed results. It will create one and a half line spacing using Ctrl+1.5 but Ctrl+anything larger than 2 does NOT work. Why is this?
Moreover, the tip does NOT work if the line space digit is selected from the numeric keyboard (which is enabled permanently on my PC for other applications). Again, why is this?
I realise that greater than double-spacing is hardly ever required, but why does the tip not work for such spacing?
2014-12-20 05:02:37
Bob Aikenhead
Also:
Ctrl+1 will change double spaced text to single spaced
Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.
Visit the WordTips channel on YouTube
FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
Copyright © 2025 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
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:
Comments