Added Spaces when Dragging and Dropping Paragraphs

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated September 24, 2024)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021

Chris has noticed a behavior in Word in the last few months that he hadn't noticed before. Whenever he drags and drops a paragraph, Word inserts a leading space before the next paragraph after both the removal point and the insertion point. He wonders why Word is doing this and how he can stop it.

It appears that this behavior may be affected by two settings in Word. Follow these steps:

Display the Word Options dialog box. (In Word 2007 click the Office button and then click Word Options. In Word 2010 or a later version, display the File tab of the ribbon and then click Options.)
Click Advanced at the left side of the screen.
Make sure the Use Smart Cut and Paste option is selected. (This option is at the very end of the Cut, Copy, and Paste section.)
Click the Settings button to the right of the Use Smart Cut and Paste option. (This button is only accessible if you complete step 3.) Word displays the Settings dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Settings dialog box.

Clear the Adjust Sentence and Word Spacing Automatically check box.
Click OK to close the Settings dialog box.
Close the Word Options dialog box.

This should affect future dragging and dropping, but it won't affect anything you previously did in the document. To catch those, you may want to do a final "Find and Replace" when you are done editing. You can search for a paragraph mark (^p) followed by a space and replace it with a paragraph mark. That way you'll get rid of any unwanted leading spaces at the beginning of a paragraph.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (10382) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Files Open in Word 2003, but not Word 2000

If you have some documents that open in Word 2003, but not in Word 2000, it may mean that you are running into some ...

Discover More

Making Hyperlinks from Coded Text

Sometimes you may receive documents from others that you need to process in some way. Word's Find and Replace ...

Discover More

Inserting a Dynamic Line Count

Word provides fields that allow you to insert a variety of informational items about your document into the document ...

Discover More

The First and Last Word on Word! Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate Word 2013. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2013 For Dummies today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Using the Object Browser

Efficiently navigating through a document, particularly as it gets longer, can be a perpetual challenge. One tool you can ...

Discover More

Transposing Two Characters

If you have two characters in the wrong order, you might be interested in a shortcut you can use to switch their order. ...

Discover More

Typing Pronunciations of Words

Take a look in a dictionary at the way that words are phonetically spelled. Those special characters used to type those ...

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is 0 + 7?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.