Changing Spacing Default?

[BigKurz]

I must be missing something...but it's driving me absolutely insane. I want to change the default AFTER PARAGRAPH SPACING to zero (When did this 10 business become the Word norm?)

However, in the Paragraph menu--unlike the others such as Font--there is no DEFAULT button. Please don't tell me I must change the 10 to 0 every time...

 

[Michel Bintener]

The default needs to be set for the style you are currently using. If you
haven't applied any styles manually, then you need to make the changes to
the style named Normal. To do that, click on Format>Style, choose Normal
from the list and click on the Modify button in the lower right corner. In
the next window, click on the Format dropdown button in the lower left
corner and choose Paragraph from the list. In the new dialogue, set the
Space After to 0, click on Ok, then tick the box next to Add to template.
Hit Ok, then on Apply, and if you now quit Word, it should save these
modifications to your default template, which means that the next time you
launch Word, the spacing should be set according to your preferences.

I must be missing something...but it's driving me absolutely insane. I want to
change the default AFTER PARAGRAPH SPACING to zero (When did this 10 business
become the Word norm?)

However, in the Paragraph menu--unlike the others such as Font--there is no
DEFAULT button. Please don't tell me I must change the 10 to 0 every time...

--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:Mac (Entourage & Word)

*** Please always reply to the newsgroup. ***

 

[BigKurz]

Thank you VERY MUCH--I appreciate it.

Is this a standard now that people use that I don't know about? I guess the benefit would be that a skipped line doesn't use up the entire size of a 12 point font skipped line?

 

[Michel Bintener]

There are *many* advantages to that method: hitting the return key in a word
processor tells the program that you have finished a paragraph, which means
that it should never be used to create some vertical space after a
paragraph. Another advantage is that you will not get inconsistent spacing
when a document breaks across multiple pages. There are many more
advantages, but these are the ones that I can think of right now.

It is no new standard by any means; it's been in word processors for a
number of years now, possibly decades, but it's a feature non-professional
users seldom use because it is extremely hard to discover, and its benefits
only show in longer documents.

Thank you VERY MUCH--I appreciate it.

Is this a standard now that people use that I don't know about? I guess the
benefit would be that a skipped line doesn't use up the entire size of a 12
point font skipped line?

--
Michel Bintener
Microsoft MVP
Office:Mac (Entourage & Word)

*** Please always reply to the newsgroup. ***

 

[Clive Huggan]

Hello Kurz,

If you want some information expanding further on Michel's comments, take a
look at a discussion of the advantages of having leading (the blank space
above and/or below a paragraph) as part of paragraph styles: at page 176 of
some notes on the way I use Word for the Mac, titled "Bend Word to Your
Will", which are available as a free download from the Word MVPs' website
(http://word.mvps.org/Mac/Bend/BendWordToYourWill.html).

[Note: "Bend Word to your will" is designed to be used electronically and
most subjects are self-contained dictionary-style entries. If you decide to
read more widely than the item I've referred to, it's important to read the
front end of the document -- especially pages 3 and 5 -- so you can select
some Word settings that will allow you to use the document effectively.]

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is 5-11 hours different from North America and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
====================================================

 

[BigKurz]

I'm definitely starting to see the utility in this format. My next question, then is:

Do you just have to manually change it back to zero when you are doing stuff like bulleted lists in which you don't want the spacing?

 

[BigKurz]

Ignore my last comment--I see that the style changes when you enter bullet or outline mode to drop the spaces.

The other day when I was experimenting with this all, my bullets were adding the space below. Now they are not. I must have messed up a different option before that caused the between-bullets spaces to occur.

Thank you guys for your help--I'm converted.

 

[Frank]

Thank you SO much for explaining how to change it to the 0 spacing.. it was driving me nuts.

 

[DanS]

Yes, me too! I knew there must be a way to change the default, but there is no default button on the paragraph drop down. And I was changing it manually each time I started a document, not exactly the best solution. Thanks much.