Adjust line spacing

You can adjust the spacing between lines in a paragraph, and change the amount of space before or after a paragraph.

Change spacing between lines

  1. Click in the paragraph whose spacing you want to change, or select one or more paragraphs.

  2. Click the Style button near the top of the sidebar on the right.

    If you don’t see a sidebar, or it doesn’t have a Style button, click Format inspector button in the toolbar. If the text is in a text box, table, or shape, first click the Text tab at the top of the sidebar, then click the Style button.

  3. Click the disclosure triangle next to Spacing, then click the pop-up menu and choose an option:

    • Lines: Choose to keep the distance between ascenders (parts of letters that extend to the top of the line) and descenders (parts of letters that extend below the line) the same. The space between lines is proportional to the font size.

    • At least: Choose to keep the distance between lines fixed (but not overlap if the text gets large). The distance from one line to the next will never be less than the value you set, but it may be larger for larger fonts to prevent overlapping text lines.

    • Exactly: The distance between the baselines.

    • Between: The value you set increases the space between the lines, instead of increasing the height of the lines. By contrast, double-spacing doubles the height of each line.

  4. Click the arrows next to the spacing field to set the amount of space for the option you chose.

  5. To adjust the amount of space before and after the selected paragraph, click the arrows for Before Paragraph and After Paragraph.