Mail Merge Labels in Word 2007 Default double spacing

[Bons]

About a year ago there was a very long string of emails regarding this
issue....and they didn't really give a good fix. Am hoping that by now
someone has figured out a satisfactory solution..... The default for Labels
is that rascal 5.55 spacing before paragraph ....and there doesn't seem to be
a way of getting that to just go Away!!

I know how to use a label template and have been doing so for a long time,
just as a time saver. However, I teach computer software to realtors and a
lot of them are not totally 'puter savvy and just want the simplest way
possible to accomplish something. And using a single template is not a
viable solution, as the data bases do not all have the same fields.

With the new default for Mail Merge in Word '07 it is very cumbersome for
them to do the merges....It used to be so EASY!!! WHY oh why did they have
to screw this up? I have tried everything I can think of to make the single
space hold, but to no avail. I have gone up to Page Layout and made all the
spacings zero and told it to set as Default....I've gone into the Normal and
Modified the normal and told it New Documents Based on this Template.....etc
etc. Has ANYONE come up with a SIMPLE fix for this yet? I'm hoping that
since a whole year has gone by maybe MSN has come up with a correction for
this. I figure if there is anyone anywhere who knows the answer, it's going
to be here.......This is the BEST place to learn I've ever seen. Thanks for
any help you can give on this.

 

[Graham Mayor]

Labels, by default use the normal paragraph style, which in Word 2007
includes 1.5 line space.
For my installation I edited the normal style to have no line space and
replaced the No spacing style with a Normal spaced style to maintain
compatibility.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

Just use Shift+Enter (rather than Enter) between the lines of text on the
label.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Bons]

Thanks, Graham....unfortunately, I've tried that....replacing the normal
document....and it holds for the rest of Word, but for some reason it doesn't
hold for the labels....keeps defaulting back to the 1.5 spacing. I can't for
the life of me figure out why a programmer would set 1.5 as the default in
the first place....but will keep working to try to work around it. I really
appreciate you responding to this query.

 

[Graham Mayor]

It is not the normal template that I mentioned, but the normal paragraph
STYLE. If you replace the normal template the original normal style, c/w
extra line spacing, will be restored. You need to edit the normal STYLE in
the normal template to remove the spacing from its paragraph attribute.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Bons]

WOW---for some reason I am really dense on this one....I just messed around
with EVERTYHING I could see to do and cannot get it to hold.....I'm usually
able to figure these things out with just a bit of instruction...but this one
has me stymied....I guess I'll just go back to the old way I first
discovered...highlight everything in the first label and change the paragraph
style to all zeroes, which then governs the rest of the labels. It's not as
simple as it should be, but at least it gets the job done. I'll NEVER
understand why they did this to us in the first place! But I truly DO
appreciate you trying to help me on this.

 

[Bons]

Thanks! I still don't understand why they did it to us, but I truly do
appreciate your response. I try to make things as simple as I can for my
students....they're all over the place level-wise and some will be able to
remember the Shift/Enter and some will absolutely not. Maybe in a later
incarnation the programmers will correct this situation for us. Thanks again
for your time!!

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

It being customary for a space to appear between separate paragraphs in a
document, the programmers are trying to drag people into the computer age
and stop them from pressing enter twice to get that space. That's what was
required in the days of typewriters and before too much longer, there will
be no one left who has ever used a typewriter.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Graham Mayor]

On the Home tab of the ribbon right Click 'Normal' style.
Select Modify from the drop down menu.
Check the New Documents based on this template radio button.
Click Format > Paragraph
Change space after from 10pt to 0
Change line spacing from Multiple 1.15 to Single
Click OK - OK

Check Word Options > Advanced > Save > Prompt before saving normal template

When you close Word you will get a prompt to save the normal template. Save
it!

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Bons]

I (and a LOT of other people) would rather have control over determining what
is and what is NOT a paragraph.....Word misjudges that all too often and it's
too cumbersome to correct. I'd much rather hit Enter twice when I WANT it to
happen rather than spending hours trying to figure out how to stop it. For
instance the Name/Address/ City, State, Zip lines on a label are NOT new
paragraphs.

But thanks for the input anyway.....it's always interesting to see what the
thought process was for making a determination like this.

 

[Doug Robbins - Word MVP]

If you do not want the Name/Address/ City, State, Zip lines on a label to be
in separate paragraphs, the do not terminate each line by using the Enter
key. That creates a new paragraph (or its equivalent) no matter what
software you are using, so it is not a matter of Word misjudging.

--
Hope this helps.

Please reply to the newsgroup unless you wish to avail yourself of my
services on a paid consulting basis.

Doug Robbins - Word MVP

 

[Graham Mayor]

Word is not a typewriter. It creates a new paragraph every time you press
the Enter key. If you press the enter key twice, you get two paragraphs. It
is not Word that is getting anything wrong. Word employs a style based
formatting system. If you want space between paragraphs you add space to the
paragraph style. If you don't want space, then you don't.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP


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[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

As the others have said, when you press Enter you create a new paragraph. If
you want a new line within the same paragraph, use Shift+Enter.