How to Change Character Spacing in Word
Character spacing is the space between letters in Word. Select the text, open Font → Advanced → Spacing, and choose Expanded or Condensed with an amount. Character spacing is separate from line and paragraph spacing.
This guide covers the desktop version of Word for Windows. Menu names and positions can differ between versions.
Set the spacing between characters
- Select the characters or sentence you want to change. Right-click and choose Font; select the entire document first if that is the intended scope.
- On Advanced, find Character Spacing → Spacing. Choose Expanded or Condensed and set the amount in points (pt).
- Check the preview and choose OK. Start with a small amount to reduce the chance of overlapping letters or unwanted line breaks.
Compare expanded and condensed spacing
Expanded adds space between the selected characters; Condensed reduces it. Compare the same sentence while changing only spacing so you can see what the setting affects. Check for collisions and changed wrapping. The same amount can look different with another font or font size.
| Setting | What changes |
|---|---|
| Character spacing | The space between characters. |
| Scale | The horizontal proportion of the characters themselves. |
| Line spacing | The vertical distance between lines within a paragraph. |
| Space before or after | The additional space between paragraphs. |
Choose the correct type of spacing
Use line and paragraph spacing settings when the problem is vertical space between lines or paragraphs. Do not use character spacing or Scale to solve that problem. Microsoft's text-spacing reference explains character spacing and scaling.
Return to normal spacing
Select the changed text and set Spacing → Normal in the same dialog. If you also changed Scale, inspect that setting separately. Immediately after an unwanted change, you can use Ctrl+Z. Manually inserted spaces remain when you reset character spacing, so check the underlying text too.
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