Text Spacing

The Microsoft Accessibility Checker will give you a warning if you have more than 3 or 4 blank spaces in a row. This includes extra spaces of the spacebar, too many returns, or too many tabs in a row. The best way to insert space into your document is to use the built-in functions for text spacing including the Paragraph functions and the Tab functions

Paragraph functions

To increase or decrease white space between sentences or paragraphs, instead of repeatedly entering blank lines use the text spacing capabilities of Word.

1. Select your text.
2. Select the Home tab.
3. In the Paragraph group, in the lower-right corner of the group, select the More button.
   The Paragraph dialog box opens, showing the Indents and Spacing tab.
4. Under Spacing, select the spacing options you want.

The Before and After options will add extra space either above or below the text selected and should be used instead of adding empty returns.

Tab functions

Instead of adding numerous empty spaces or tabs, use the tab settings on the ruler at the top of your screen to easily create custom tab settings or you can use the Tab dialog box.

The Ruler

The ruler at the top of your Word document provides an easy way to set tabs in a document.

The default tab settings are every .5 inch. To change this

1. Enter the information that needs different tab settings
2. Highlight the section that needs these tab settings
3. In the upper left corner of your screen choose which kind of tab you need

4. Click on the place you would like it on the ruler – you will see the tab mark appear on the ruler

Or

1. Enter the information that needs the different tab settings
2. Highlight the section that needs these tab settings
3. Open the Tabs dialog box: Home tab > Paragraph group > Tabs
4. Set the tabs needed (see the video for directions)