Triple-Spacing Your Document

If you ever have a need to triple-space your document before printing it, Word provides an easy way to do this. If possible, you should keep your document in the format in which you view it on the screen, and only format it for triple spacing before you actually print. To print a triple-spaced version of your document, do the following:

1. Save your document.
2. Press Ctrl+A to select the entire document.
3. Display the Home tab of the ribbon.
4. Click the small icon at the bottom-right of the Paragraph group. Word displays the Paragraph dialog box. It is possible that some of the fields in the dialog box are not filled in. This is because you have selected the entire document, and the "empty" setting is different for different paragraphs. (See Figure 1.)



Figure 1. The Paragraph dialog box.

5. In the Spacing area, choose Multiple in the Line Spacing drop-down list.
6. Change the At setting (to the right of the Line Spacing drop-down list) to 3.
7. Click on OK.
8. Print your document.
9. Close your document without saving.

This last step is important. If you save your document before exiting, then the triple spacing will be permanently saved with the document, as well.

You can also accomplish this task by using the Line and Paragraph Spacing tool on the Home tab of the ribbon. (This tool is in the Paragraph group, and in some versions of Word is called the Line Spacing tool.) Follow these steps:

1. Save your document.
2. Press Ctrl+A.
3. Click the Line Spacing tool. A number of spacing options appear.
4. Choose either 3 or 3.0, depending on your version of Word. Your entire document is triple spaced.
5. Print your document.
6. Close your document without saving.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (6705) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Triple-Spacing Your Document.