How to Adjust the Space between Words in Microsoft Word

In my last Microsoft Word tutorial, we adjusted the space between letters. Today, we’re going to adjust the space between words in Microsoft Word without altering the letter spacing.

Are you on a Mac? Please visit “How to Adjust the Space between Words in Word for Mac.”

A Word of Caution: You may be tempted to increase the space between words by adding multiple spaces. I strongly advise against this practice because adding unnecessary spaces (rather than making individual spaces bigger, as shown in this tutorial) can disturb other formatting in your document.

This tutorial is available as a YouTube video showing all the steps in real time.

Watch more than 200 other writing-related software tutorials on my YouTube channel.

The images below are from Word for Microsoft 365. These steps will also work in Word 2021, Word 2019, Word 2016, and Word 2013.

How to Adjust the Space between Words

Select the Home tab in the ribbon.

Home tab in Word 365 — Figure 1. Home tab

(Optional) Select the Show/Hide button in the Paragraph group to reveal your document’s formatting.

Show/Hide button in Word 365 — Figure 2. Show/Hide button

Select the part of the text you want to change. (Pro Tip: Press Ctrl + A to select the entire document.)

Example of selected text in Word 365 — Figure 3. Example of selected text

Take note of your current font size in the Font Size menu. The default space between words is based on your current font size.

Font Size menu in Word 365 — Figure 4. Font Size menu

Select the Replace button in the Editing group to open the Find and Replace dialog box.

Replace button in the Home tab in Word 365 — Figure 5. Replace button

Place your cursor in the Find what text box and then press your spacebar once to create one space.

"Find what" text box in the Find and Replace dialog box in Word 365 — Figure 6. “Find what” text box

Place your cursor in the Replace with text box and then press your spacebar once to create one space.

"Replace with" text box in the Find and Replace dialog box in Word 365 — Figure 7. “Replace with” text box

Select the More button to expand the dialog box. (Disregard this step if your dialog box is already expanded.)

More button in the Find and Replace dialog box in Word 365 — Figure 8. More button

Select the Format button.

Format button in the Find and Replace dialog box in Word 365 — Figure 9. Format button

Select Font in the Format menu.

Font option in the Find and Replace dialog box in Word 365 — Figure 10. Font option

Select a larger or smaller font size in the Size menu in the Replace Font dialog box. Alternatively, you can type a specific size into the text box at the top of the menu.

Size menu in the Replace Font dialog box in Word 365 — Figure 11. Size menu

Select the OK button.

OK button in the Replace Font dialog box in Word 365 — Figure 12. OK button

Select the Replace All button.

Replace All button in the Find and Replace dialog box in Word 365 — Figure 13. Replace All button

A dialog box will report the number of replacements.

- Select Yes if you want to expand the replacements to your whole document.
- Select No if you only want the replacements in the text you selected in step 3.