How to Quickly Remove Double Spaces in Word

Today's writing style guidelines direct us to type just one space after a period. However, you might get documents with two spaces after periods, because that was the convention a couple of decades ago -- and old habits die hard. If you get a Word document with double spaces, you can quickly strip out the extra spaces to meet modern standards by following these steps.

1. Hit CTRL+A to select all the text in the document.

2. Hit CTRL+H to open the Find and Replace window.

3. Type two spaces in the Find what field.

4. Type one space in the Replace with field.

5. Click Replace All.

That's all there is to it. Word will change the double spaces to single spaces and tell you how many replacements it made. Click No to searching the rest of the document, since you already selected all of the text.

Microsoft Word Tips