Method 1: Keyboard Shortcut (Fastest)

  1. 1

    Select all text

    Press Ctrl + A (Windows) or Cmd + A (Mac) to select all text in the document. Or click and drag to select specific paragraphs.

  2. 2

    Press Ctrl + 2 (Windows) or Cmd + 2 (Mac)

    This instantly sets the selected text to double line spacing. Ctrl + 1 returns to single spacing. Ctrl + 5 sets 1.5 line spacing.

Method 2: Home Tab

  1. 3

    Select your text

    Select the text you want to double space, or Ctrl + A for the whole document.

  2. 4

    Home → Line and Paragraph Spacing button

    In the Home tab, find the Paragraph section. Click the Line and Paragraph Spacing button (it shows lines with arrows). Select 2.0 from the dropdown.

Method 3: Set as Default for All New Documents

  1. 5

    Home → Paragraph dialog launcher

    Click the small arrow in the bottom-right corner of the Paragraph group on the Home tab to open the Paragraph dialog box.

  2. 6

    Set Line spacing to Double

    Under Spacing, change the Line spacing dropdown to Double.

  3. 7

    Click Set As Default

    Click the Set As Default button at the bottom left. Choose "All documents based on the Normal template" to apply to all future documents.

Remove extra space between paragraphsWord often adds extra space after each paragraph by default. In the Paragraph dialog, set Space After to 0pt if you want true double spacing without the additional paragraph gaps common in academic formatting.

Frequently Asked Questions

Line spacing is the space between each line within a paragraph. Paragraph spacing is the extra space added before or after each paragraph. Academic double-spacing usually means 2.0 line spacing with 0pt paragraph spacing — everything uniformly spaced.
Yes — in Google Docs go to Format → Line & paragraph spacing → Double, or use the same Ctrl+2 / Cmd+2 shortcut.