I have not used Office professionally for the 15 years since I retired but used to be quite proficient. Things have changed a lot in those years! I am trying to create a document and find that when I hit return, the default must be 1 1/2 spaces down. I would prefer it be one space. I cannot find where to change the default. I would appreciate any help in making this change.

To quickly answer your question, right-click anywhere on the page then select "Paragraph" from the menu. From the resulting menu, go to the "spacing" section (near the center) and click on "Line Spacing"...then select the spacing you desire.

FWIW, if you are going to work with Word in your retirement years, you may want to review Understanding styles | ShaunaKelly.com. Understanding that information will help you tremendously in formatting your documents.

HTHs...

One good place to start is:
Basic Concepts of Microsoft Word - from Shauna Kelly

One way to change the default would be in the Manage Styles dialog box. In the Styles pane (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+S), click the Manage Styles icon and go to the Set Defaults tab. Specify the value you want for "Line Spacing" (= the spacing between text lines in a paragraph) as well as the value you want for "Spacing After" or "Spacing Before" (= the spacing added between paragraphs as you press Enter). Select "New documents based on this template" and click OK. The settings will be incorporated into your template and they will be used in future documents.

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Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional