Stop Word 2007 from adding space between lines

just check the "Don't add space between paragraphs of the same style and the default button, if you want to make this your default, and then click ok

I've had the misfortune of downloading the latest version of Word 2007 (regrettably to correct another uncorrectable problem). The line spacing has now changed to 1.5 spacing & the return key renders a double space. That's dumb by & of itself, but what's really annoying is that the default can't be changed (at least on my computer). The typical Google search is clogged with repetitive & often useless back-patting from Microsoft’s many employees. Beyond all of that drivel, I've tried:
1. going to Home "Change Styles" & changing to Word 2003 as default.
2. going to "Page Layout" & tried to change the "Spacing" default. &
3. going to Page Layout's dialogue box, then to "Spacing," default
4. going to Home then “Spacing” then “Space after Paragraph” then default
All of these fix the spacing for the open document, but despite checking "Change to Default" they never hold over to the next document opened.
Relative to the inconsistencies amongst other computers see http://www.cedarville.edu/help/Change+Word+2007+Default+Spacing which notes: "There have been a few cases on campus where the spacing defaults will not change permanently and the line spacing has returned to the system default of 1.5 when a new document is opened."

It does suck to use Microsoft word 2007. If you ever happen to copy some text, it would be the worst nightmare. I have had bad experiences with Excel 2007 as well. Excl files which I work on using excel 2007 won't work for my colleagues with 2003 even after saving it in 2003 ( compatibility ) format.
I have deceided to switch to Office 2003, for the time being I am managing with Google docs.

There is a less temporary solution. Go to the HOME tab, then on the far right you'll see 'Change Styles', then select 'Style Set', then select 'Word 2003'. This will change to the previous formatting that we're all familiar with and which makes better sense. Go back to the 'Change Styles' menu, and select 'Set as Default' if you want this setting to be saved so that the next time you use Word you don't have to mess with it.

I hate the extra spaces between paragraphs. As a secretary I am doing many letters per day and every time I hit enter there is another space added so that addresses have to be highlighted and then go to paragraph and then tell it not to add spaces. After all that it starts again adding spaces when you have to repeat the process. I press the default every time and it may or may not keep it for only that letter. We all know what we need for our own particular work so I would like to change the programming to "no extra spaces" ever between paragraphs unless I press enter twice. Why can't I program it to stop that forever. This is what is so frustrating about Word 2007, it does not allow you to change it so it works for you and now I have many extra steps to my repetitive work. There used to be easier ways to get to particular files that you use multiple times a day and now the way to program that is not obvious. Word used to be much less frustrating. Believe me when you have to repeat an action that slows down your work hundreds of times a day you are no longer a happy camper.

Here is the fix that Microsoft suggests. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA102310271033.aspx?mode=print

Here's a cut and paste from that link.
1. Open the document that you want to look like a Word 2003 document.
2. On the Home tab, in the Styles group, click Change Styles.
3. Point to Style Set, and click Word 2003.
4. If you want to create all documents with the Word 2003 style set and fonts, in the Styles group, click Change Styles, and then click Set as Default.
All future documents will open with the Word 2003 default style set and fonts.

Also, if you want to keep the 2007 style, and manually single space from time to time, you can press "Shift" and "Enter" to get a single spaced (1.15) line break.

i was having the double spacing issues and since i have to hard break after a line, it was driving me nuts, makes it problematic when i need to transfer everything to excel. I even removed 07 from my home computer and went back to 03.
with new comuters at the office, i tried evrything i could think of, thanks to Richards reply (9):
"To get around this open paragraph options and set line spacing to single and Spacing-After to 0pt then click default button and this will change your normal.dot template to not do this anymore!"
i am cured!!! thank you Richard.

Thank you!! You have saved me from tearing my hair out!

My ancient Word (X for Mac) suddenly started adding an extra space between paragraphs in one document. I may have imported text from someone using Word 2007. Starting with the advice above I found a solution: use shift-enter to introduce a paragraph, then option-tab to indent the new paragraph.

Eric, your post is spot on, thanks, it helped a lot.

It baffles me that Microsoft just do not seem to understand the problem. They think that we're pressing enter twice for a new paragraph but we're not, every time you press enter you automatically get a new paragraph, which is rediculous!

There are lots of times you need a simple carraige return, like Betty said when typing addresses.

How do Microsoft expect you to write an address in the 2007 template format?

Many valid perspectives have been voiced here. I happen to come down on the side of leaving line spacing in control of the person rather than the computer. In a world with Oreo cookies, everyone can afford the energy required to hit enter twice between a paragraph. Yet in a world with traffic jams no one should have to deal with the added frustration of trying to get rid of an unwanted blank line on a title page, for example. But if these arguments don't do it, then here's another one. A precedence should only be broken for a great reason, not a mediocre one. The enter key "began" with a default function of inserting a single space line feed and should have stayed that way in my opinion. In an extreme example, imagine the ciaos if green had been swapped with red in traffic signals upon the discovery that humans see green better than red.

I think you need to clarify between "spaces between lines" and "spaces between paragraphs." In the academic community, double spaces between lines and the same amount of spacing between paragraphs (with the first line indented) is the most common standard. Examples can be seen at for APA and for MLA.

The standard I see most commonly used in business communication is single spacing between lines and double spacing between paragraphs, with no indentation. Most users implement the double spacing between paragraphs with two hits to the enter key... effective, but not very semantic. Oh, and please oh please oh please do not extra-space the paragraphs *and* indent the first line. That's totally like wearing white in January.

I use Word 2003 and OpenOffice and have templates set up in each that use styles to configure the spacing, etc. as needed for the type of document. While it takes a bit of time to set up styles and templates to behave exactly as you want, in the end it saves a *lot* of time and frustration. Now I almost never have to reach for the formatting toolbar or (worse!) formatting menu items.

Definitely agree with Meter, here... It seems "Space After Paragraph" setting would only create a double-spaced look for a paragraph if the user was hard-breaking every-line of the paragraph (hitting enter at the end of each line, rather than letting Word word-wrap the paragraph itself).

Having done some desktop publishing, it makes much more sense to have paragraph styles define the spacing between your paragraphs, rather than two hard-breaks at the end of each paragraph. This way the layout editor can easily switch the style of the document from single-line spacing to no spacing with first-line indent, or any other spacing.

Shame it doesn't automatically correct use of "it's" when you mean "its".