Added Spaces when Dragging and Dropping Paragraphs

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated September 24, 2024)

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

Printing Comments

After adding comments to a document you may want to print them later. Word provides a variety of ways you can print the ...

Discover More

Turning Off Paste Options

Paste information into a document and you'll immediately see a small icon next to the pasted information. This icon ...

Discover More

Understanding Unicode Characters

Unicode is a character-encoding scheme that works with a huge variety of characters. This tip explains what Unicode is ...

Discover More

Discover the Power of Microsoft Office This beginner-friendly guide reveals the expert tips and strategies you need to skyrocket your productivity and use Office 365 like a pro. Mastering software like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint is essential to be more efficient and advance your career. Simple lessons guide you through every step, providing the knowledge you need to get started. Check out Microsoft Office 365 For Beginners today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Replacing the Last Comma

When you need to perform certain editing tasks over and over again, you start to look for ways to make your work faster ...

Discover More

Getting the Proper Type of Ellipses

Type three periods in a row, and the AutoCorrect feature in Word kicks in to exchange that sequence for a special ...

Discover More

Stepping through Sentences

Need to select an entire sentence at once? You can do so by creating a short macro that does the task for you, or you can ...

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 3 + 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.