How to Remove Unwanted Space in Word: A Step-by-Step Guide

Quick answer: First reveal formatting marks with Home > Show/Hide ¶. Extra spaces between words, empty paragraph marks, paragraph spacing, and stretched justified text are different problems; fix the one you actually see instead of replacing every space in the document.

Find the source of the gap

With Show/Hide on, ordinary spaces appear as dots, tabs as arrows, and paragraph endings as ¶. If the gap shows several dots, it is typed spaces. If it shows extra ¶ marks, it is empty paragraphs. If there are no extra marks but the gap is vertical, check paragraph spacing and line spacing. Formatting marks are editing aids and do not print.

Remove extra spaces between words

For a few errors, delete the extra space manually. For repeated double spaces in ordinary body text, open Home > Replace, enter two spaces in Find what and one space in Replace with, then use Find Next and Replace to review each change. A blanket Replace All may affect deliberate spacing in tables or special layouts. Repeat only if you still see multiple spaces.

Remove every run of extra spaces in one pass

Replacing two spaces with one only shortens each run by one space, so a gap of four spaces needs several passes. A wildcard search fixes runs of any length at once in desktop Word.

1. Press Ctrl+H to open Find and Replace. On a Mac, choose Edit > Find > Replace.
2. Select More and turn on Use wildcards.
3. In Find what, type a space followed by {2,}.
4. In Replace with, type a single space.
5. Use Find Next and Replace to review the matches, or Replace All if the document has no deliberate spacing.

Turn Use wildcards off afterward, because it changes how later searches behave. If you use the plain two-spaces method instead, run Replace All again until Word reports zero replacements. Press Ctrl+Z to undo a replacement that went wrong.

If the problem is the opposite and your words are running together, see how to add space between words without breaking the layout.

Reduce vertical space between paragraphs

1. Select the affected paragraphs.
2. Open Layout > Spacing and inspect the Before and After values. Lower the value causing the gap.
3. If the gap is between lines within a paragraph, use Home > Line and Paragraph Spacing or the Paragraph dialog instead.
4. If extra empty ¶ marks are present, remove only the unneeded ones.

For document-wide consistency, change the paragraph style or use Design > Paragraph Spacing rather than correcting each paragraph individually.

Delete blank lines throughout the document

When Show/Hide reveals many empty ¶ marks, remove them with Find and Replace instead of deleting each one.

1. Press Ctrl+H to open Find and Replace.
2. In Find what, type ^p^p (two paragraph marks).
3. In Replace with, type ^p.
4. Select Replace All, and repeat until Word finds no more matches.

Check headings and tables afterward. If you want visible separation between paragraphs, add Spacing After in the paragraph settings instead of typing blank lines.

Set paragraph spacing to zero in the Paragraph dialog

To remove the space between paragraphs completely, set it to zero in one place.

1. Select the paragraphs, or press Ctrl+A to select the whole document.
2. On the Home tab, select the dialog launcher in the corner of the Paragraph group.
3. On the Indents and Spacing tab, set Before and After to 0 pt.
4. Select OK.

For a quick fix without the dialog, select Home > Line and Paragraph Spacing and choose Remove Space After Paragraph. If you want list items or similar lines to sit together but keep space around headings, check Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style in the Paragraph dialog instead. To make zero spacing the default for new documents, select Set As Default before selecting OK, and choose to apply it to all documents based on the Normal template.

To tighten the lines inside each paragraph as well, follow our guide to reducing space between lines in Word.

Fix a gap caused by a tab or page setting

An arrow between words is a tab, not a run of spaces. Delete an accidental tab, or adjust the tab stop if the text is meant to line up. If you are arranging columns of information, a table is usually easier to keep aligned than repeated spaces and tabs.

For a large blank area before the next paragraph, inspect the paragraph immediately after the gap. Right-click it, choose Paragraph > Line and Page Breaks, and check Page break before and Keep with next. These settings can move text to another page even when Show/Hide reveals no empty paragraphs. Clear a setting only if it is unintended; headings may deliberately stay with the following paragraph. Also inspect any visible page or section break before deleting it, since a section break may control headers, margins, or orientation.

Check the result without damaging the layout

After changing spacing, view the pages in Print Layout or Print Preview. Confirm that headings still sit with their text and that lists, tables, and page numbers have not shifted unexpectedly. If the same gap repeats throughout the document, fix the paragraph style or document-wide spacing setting so new paragraphs inherit the correction.

Tighten text slightly without deleting spaces

If the spacing is technically correct but a line or heading needs to fit in less room, condense the character spacing.

1. Select the text.
2. Open the Font dialog with the small arrow in the corner of the Home > Font group, or press Ctrl+D.
3. Select the Advanced tab.
4. Set Spacing to Condensed and enter a small value, such as 0.3 pt.
5. Select OK.

This setting moves every character closer together, not just the words, so use small values and keep it to short passages. Set Spacing back to Normal to undo it.

When the words stretch across the line

If a line has very wide gaps but no extra space dots, it may be Justified alignment. Select the paragraph and try Align Left. Manual line breaks can also create odd spacing in justified text. See the word-spacing troubleshooting guide for that case.

Microsoft’s guides: paragraph spacing and formatting marks.

Matt Wilmont

Matt has been writing about Microsoft Windows and other Microsoft products since the days of Windows XP. He spends much of his time writing for sites like WindowBrain.com