Using Windows 7, Office 07.



I do most of my typing into a simple text editor. I use a single line between paragraphs. I have my Word template set up the same way. At home > paragraph > spacing, I have it set to 0 pt, 0 pt, single.

I like to paste my typing from the text editor into Word to check spelling, grammar, etc. When I do that, I get a lot of variety in the space between paragraphs. It is single sometimes, but not often. Sometimes there is no line between paragraphs, and sometimes there are multiple lines between them. I checked paragraph > spacing the last time multiple lines showed up, and it said 0 pt, 10 pt, multiple.

Why does that keep dancing around and changing? When I go to open > templates > normal.dotm and open that, it does show the spacing I want, which is 0 pt, 0 pt, single. This has been happening for at least a couple of years.

sigh

Hi baffled,

If you're pasting the content as unformatted text, the only thing that would account for differences in apparent line spacing is the presence of manual line breaks and/or extra paragraph breaks in the data. You should be able to toggle the display of such formatting on/off by clicking on the ¶ symbol on the Ribbon's Home tab.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

No, that really doesn't seem to be the problem. I use Notepad ++ which numbers all the lines. All my paragraphs are a single line with nothing added. At the end of each paragraph I hit enter twice to start a new one. This is what I do all the time in all my typing.

In addition to that, as I mentioned in my first post, but not very clearly, when I open a new docx, I get variety in the paragraph spacing. Sometimes it is home > paragraph > spacing, set to 0 pt, 0 pt, single but when the wide spaces between paragraphs happen, going there shows that it is set to 0 pt, 10 pt, multiple.

As I mentioned, my template is set to home > paragraph > spacing, set to 0 pt, 0 pt, single. WHY does Word sometimes open a new blank docx with different spacing??? When I open a new word sheet, I get 3 different types of spacing there. The one I want, and the one the template claims it is set up for, only happens about a quarter of the time.

truly baffled

Hi baffled,

All Word document are based on templates. By default, Word uses its 'Normal' template. And that template's default Paragraph Style, which is also called 'Normal' has a default 10pt trailing space in Word 2007 & later. You can change these defaults if you want.

The fact you're getting inconsistent behaviour suggests you are not always creating your new documents the same way. If, for example, you're creating new documents from old ones, the formatting will adopt whatever Style formatting the old document had. Conversely, if you're creating your new documents by starting Word with a new blank document, the formatting will be based on whatever template the new document is based on and whatever default paragraph Style is defined for that template.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

I just had another example of Word doing this and thought of posting it here in case the extra detail helps.

Mostly I type into Notepad++ because I am familiar with it from working with code. I type each paragraph as one line and separate them by a blank line.

I had a page typed. I opened a new docx from the start menu, called document1. I pasted the page from NP++ into the Word page to check spelling and grammar suggestions. To my surprise it kept the formatting perfectly, which only happens about 20% of the time.

Thinking about this topic, I checked paragraph > spacing. It is set just as the template is, at 0pt, 0pt, single.

I went back to NP and typed in another paragraph and then copied the whole page again. I went back to exactly the same document1, selected all, and pasted text into it again. This time it comes out completely different. There is a huge blank space between each paragraph. I check the paragraph settings, and they are now at 0 pt 10 pt multiple, and 1.15.

No settings were changed by me between these 2 pastes, either in NP or in Word. No new document was opened in a different way.

What is going on?

sincerely baffled