Remove skipped lines from your Word documents

When authoring in Microsoft Word, the default template automatically skips a line between paragraphs - which is visually pleasing and does make it easier to read. But what if you're authoring in Word for another destination, such as a blog or social media site? When you cut and paste your text into your publishing tool, you may end up with a jammed together mess.

The quick fix is to Select All (Ctrl+A) and then right click in the document body and choose Paragraph:

Now go into the Spacing section and set Before and After to 0 pt and Line spacing to Single:

If you want to make this your default, just click the Set As Default button. You'll be prompted to decide whether to make this your global default or just for the selected document:

Now, you will need to actually enter skipped lines between paragraphs manually but these should carry over when you cut and paste your final text into your final publishing destination.

If you do make this your global default and ever want to change it back to displaying skipped lines that aren't there, just return to Paragraph settings and enter these values:

Suzanne