This tutorial shows how to adjust paragraph spacing in Word for Mac. We will begin by changing the spacing before and after individual paragraphs. Then, we will adjust the space before and after all the paragraphs in a document.
Don’t miss the brief discussion at the end about Word’s built-in paragraph spacing options—and why you may not want to use them.
These steps don’t affect the line spacing within the paragraphs. We will cover line spacing in Word for Mac in a separate tutorial.
Table of Contents
- How to Adjust the Space Before and After Individual Paragraphs
- How to Adjust the Space Before and After All Paragraphs
- What about the Built-In Paragraph Spacing Options?
This tutorial’s companion video shows all the steps in real time.
Watch more than 150 other writing-related software tutorials on my YouTube channel.
The images below are from Word for Microsoft 365 for Mac. These steps also apply to Word 2021 for Mac, Word 2019 for Mac, and Word 2016 for Mac.
Are you on a PC? Please see “How to Adjust Paragraph Spacing in Microsoft Word.”
How to Adjust the Space Before and After Individual Paragraphs
- Select the Home tab.
- (Optional) Select the Show/Hide button to reveal your formatting marks, including paragraph marks.
- Select the paragraph or paragraphs you want to adjust.
- Select the Line and Paragraph Spacing button.
- Select Line Spacing Options from the drop-down menu.
- Enter an amount into the Before or After text box in the Paragraph dialog box.
Pro Tip: Avoid entering numbers in the Before and After text boxes at the same time because multiple adjustments may cause unwanted results.
- Ensure that Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style is not selected.
- Select the OK button.
The spacing should be adjusted for the selected paragraph(s).
How to Adjust the Space Before and After All Paragraphs
This process adjusts the paragraph spacing for the entire document without affecting heading spacing.
- Place your cursor in one of your paragraphs.
- Select the Home tab (see figure 2).
- Select the Styles Pane button.
Your paragraph style (which is usually “Normal”) will be automatically selected in the Styles Pane.
- Select the Select All button.
Your paragraphs should be selected, but your headings should not be selected.
- Select the Line and Paragraph Spacing button (see figure 4).
- Select Line Spacing Options from the drop-down menu (see figure 5).
- Enter an amount into the Before or After text box in the Paragraph dialog box (see figure 6).
Pro Tip: Avoid entering numbers in the Before and After text boxes at the same time because multiple adjustments may cause unwanted results.
- Ensure that Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style is not selected (see figure 7).
- Select the OK button (see figure 8).
The spacing should be adjusted for all the paragraphs in the document. The heading spacing should not be affected.
- Select the X to close the Styles Pane.
What about the Built-In Paragraph Spacing Options?
The Paragraph Spacing menu in the Design tab includes six built-in options. You can use these options instead of custom paragraph spacing. However, these options will also adjust the line spacing within your paragraphs.
