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.

Getting a Double-Spaced Printout

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated October 13, 2020)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


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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:

  1. Save your document.
  2. Press Ctrl+A. Your entire document is selected.
  3. Press Ctrl+2. Word double-spaces the document.
  4. Press Ctrl+P to print your document.
  5. Close your document without saving

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.

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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What is 1 + 8?

2014-12-20 05:20:05

GeordieLad

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


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