Tech Tips for Writers is an (almost) weekly post on overcoming Tech Dread. I’ll cover issues that friends, both real-time and virtual, have shared. Feel free to post a comment about a question you have. I’ll cover it in a future Tip.
Q: My Word 2010 came with a default for double space between paragraphs, but I don’t like that. I’ve tried to reset it to single space, but it doesn’t fix it. What do I do?
A: I don’t either. What was Bill Gates thinking? Don’t as many people start a paragraph with a tab indent as a double space between paragraphs?
Now I have to fix that every time I open a Word doc. Here’s how to do it (in Word 2010):
- Go to Page Layout
- Go to Paragraph, Spacing
- Make sure ‘after’ is set to 0–not 10.
To make this the default:
- Under the ‘Home’ tab, go to ‘Paragraph
- Click the little dot in the lower right corner
- Change the ‘after’ spacing to 0
- At the bottom of the dialog box, click ‘set as default’.
Now the world spins just a bit nicer.
Questions you want answered? Leave a comment here and I’ll answer it within the next thirty days.
More Tech Tips for writers:
Tech Tip for Writers #62: Emailing from Word
6 Tips That Solve Half Your Tech Writing Problems
12 Spring Cleaning Steps for Your Computer
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is the author/editor of dozens of books on integrating tech into education, webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, adjunct professor of technology in education, a columnist for Examiner.com and TeachHUB, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, monthly contributor to Today’s Author and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. You can find her book at her publisher’s website, Structured Learning.
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Outward flick of both thumbs – I have no idea how this works – sounds interesting. Perhaps I need to search your blog for further instructions.
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When the keyboard appears on the iPad, place your thumbs on the keyboard and gently flick them away from each other. It pulls the keyboard into two pieces. Perfect for ‘thumbers’.
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Thanks!
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Time for me to go exploring for tech tips on the links you have above. Tech smart is one thing I’m not. Now I know someone I can send a question to. Yeah.
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There are so many that make life easier. I love finding them. My current favorite is tht you can break the keyboard into two thumb able pieces with the outward flick of both thumbs. You get this
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I’ve done this myself. I used to like Word’s default settings, but in the past few years the spacing has bothered me, as well as the automatic font. I do change the default settings to my liking.
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So you’re a closet geek like me!
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Although I would rather write on every line of a page, when it comes to someone editing it, I understand why so many insist on double spacing. Even my writing buddy has requested it. To accommodate her, the copy I send her is altered from my original. yWriter is set up for every line to be written on, which is one of the many reasons I use the program.
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Oh yes. Editing is so much easier with a double spaced document. I’m with yr writing buddy on is one.
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Thanks, Jacqui, for all the helpful information. 🙂
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My pleasure, Suzanne. I see you’re a writer and a teacher. We have that in common!
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Reblogged this on georgeforfun.
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Thanks for the reblog, George!
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You are so techie awesome. Thank you! 🙂
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Wow, that is great information. I never thought that I could change that set as default. Thank you!
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It does feel good, not to be annoyed by the default settings every time you sit at the computer.
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Jacqui, you know so many practical tips for making our computers friendlier. Thanks for sharing.
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Mostly learned the hard way!
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And every time I turn around, there are more. It’s almost impossible to keep up!
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The default double spacing drives me nuts. Sometimes I manage to fix it but I’ve never taken note of how I did it, so next time I’m back at square one. I’ve bookmarked this page for next time – thank you for the tip 🙂
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Yes–go into the tool on the ribbon, reset, and set it as default (from the ‘paragraph’ section, ‘indents and spacing’, on the bottom next to ‘tabs’)
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Now I have to check to see what mine does! Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water…..
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I’m always scrounging for space in my non-fic books so downsize the space between paragraphs. That auto function makes it impossible .
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Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog and commented:
Need Technical Help? – call over and ask Jacqui – and don’t forget to check out her TECH TIPS FOR WRTERS tab 😀
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Thanks for the reblog, Chris!
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Welcome Jacqui – hope you get lots of visitors and questions (but not inundated lol) 😀
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What I tend to do is use the style choice ‘no spacing’.
Would that solve the problem or does it create knock-on problems?
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That probably works fine. Hadn’t thought of that.
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