# MS Word-How come single space is DOUBLE space? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 11, 2006, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-how-come-single-space-is-double-space/352220 "2006-04-11T12:47:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-how-come-single-space-is-double-space/352220/1 "2006-04-11T12:47:24Z")
I copied a text from a web page and pasted it into Word. Next, I went to format/paragraph/single space. Now, I have some text single spaced, with about 1/8 of an inch between the lines. However, further down the page, there is some text that is about 1 inch between the lines. I went back to format/et al, and apparently this is single space as well. Two questions: 1. Why the difference? 2. How can I change it to be uniform? thanks, hh ---
**Author:** ![Stark\_Raven\_Mad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Stark\_Raven\_Mad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stark_Raven_Mad)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-how-come-single-space-is-double-space/352220/2 "2006-04-11T12:50:22Z")
Try pasting what you copied into Notepad first, with or without wordwrap (I can’t remember which), and then copying from Notepad to Word. ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-how-come-single-space-is-double-space/352220/3 "2006-04-11T12:54:06Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#): > > I copied a text from a web page and pasted it into Word. > Next, I went to format/paragraph/single space. > Now, I have some text single spaced, with about 1/8 of an inch between the lines. > However, further down the page, there is some text that is about 1 inch between the lines. I went back to format/et al, and apparently this is single space as well. > Two questions: > > 1. Why the difference? > 2. How can I change it to be uniform? > thanks, > hh Try setting it to “0 pts before, 0 pts after” over the entire sample of text too, since the space before/after paragraph settings might also affect space between lines, especially if there’s a carriage return betwen them. ---
**Author:** ![nivlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3bc359/32.png) [@nivlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nivlac)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-how-come-single-space-is-double-space/352220/4 "2006-04-11T17:05:24Z")
When you paste into Word, be sure to do a Paste Special, Unformatted Text. That should do it. ---
**Author:** ![PBear42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PBear42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PBear42)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-how-come-single-space-is-double-space/352220/5 "2006-04-11T17:34:43Z")
What **nivlac** said. Note that most web pages are set up with blank paragraphs between text paragraphs. If you use space-before-and/or-after in your formatting, you want to clean out those out. Replace ^p^p with ^p. ---
**Author:** ![Palooka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/palooka/32/2902_2.png) [@Palooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palooka)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2006, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-how-come-single-space-is-double-space/352220/6 "2006-04-11T17:39:49Z")
A while ago, I assigned a paste:unformatted macro to ctrl+v. I highly recommend doing the same.