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JLuc01's avatar
JLuc01
Copper Contributor
Dec 24, 2021
Solved

How do you control the Paragraph Spacing Before in WORD?

I am trying to understand the behaviour of the "Paragraph Spacing", something I am not controlling fully. In the attachment Capture A, the Paragraph Spacing Before seems to be ignored (working corre...
  • JLuc01's avatar
    JLuc01
    Dec 25, 2021

    I finally found out. Check this link: https://www.msofficeforums.com/word/46604-spacing-before-after-paragraph.html
    In few word: Go to File, then button Options, select Advanced, go to the bottom and in Layout options for, tick Don't use HTML paragraph auto spacing.

Stefan_Blom's avatar
Stefan_Blom
MVP
Dec 29, 2021

JLuc01 

 

By default, the Spacing After of a paragraph and the Spacing Before of the following paragraph won't be added.

 

Instead, Word applies the spacing only once, using the larger of the two values. (If both Spacing Before and Spacing After are set to the same amount, that amount will be applied once.) Selecting the option "Don't use HTML paragraph auto spacing" will change this behavior, as you have found. 

 

Also, note that Spacing Before will be ignored at the top of a page, with the exception of the first page of a Word section.

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