Force Word 2007 to Single Space

The newer Office 2007-2008 package that has been released this year overall is a good product. However it has brought some changes, many of them unwelcome to the customer. In particular on of the new changes is the default Style Set in Word 2007. This has caused some interesting changes. For some reason Microsoft would have us believe that a double spaced document is more pleasing and easier to read.

Without going into a debate on that topic lets just say that this will be an unwelcome change to many people. As an everyday user you will also be very discouraged when trying to go to the help menu because there is no actual information as to how to single space the document. When you actually use the tool-bar and try to choose single spacing or changing the spacing number from 1.5/2 to 1 this still will not work.

An Internet Search unless you know what to look for will also discourage you. After all, you just want to be able to type your document and be left alone. Finally you might find the solution buried in the depths of Microsoft KB articles. Luckily someone has already done the ground work. Word 2007 does allow you to change the default Style you are using back to the comfortable Word 2003 format.

You will close any open document you have. Then you will click the home tab. This tab is located at the top of the screen when you are in Word 2007. When this menu has been opened, you want to Change Styles. This button is located in the Styles Group. At this point use your mouse to click on the Styles set. In this box you want to look for Word 2003. This is the style that you want to use. Make sure the button that says choose this as the default style is checked. Once you click Word 2003 this menu will close out.

At this point you should be able to type your document with the single spacing that you remembered well. The original Knowledge Base article for this fix is located at

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/921174

This document also gives you some other brief information regarding parallels between the Styles in Word 2007 and Word 2003 depending on the language version you are using of the program. In addition it is always a good idea to bookmark this page. You can use the search box to find other Microsoft related issues.