How to Double Space in Google Docs

Anyone who's been to high school and college since the 90s knows the "double-spaced with 12-point font" method of making your term papers and other written materials look a little longer. Google Docs uses 1,15 line spacing and an 11 point font by default. This is perfectly fine for most users as it keeps the document more compact and readable.

However, using a double-spaced liner might make the document easier to read and provide better print breaking if needed. Double-spaced helps make your document clearer to a reader and therefore much easier to avoid re-reading a line.

This article details how to add double space (as well as 1.5) to your Google documents not only for desktop but also for mobile devices.

Adjust Google Doc Line Spacing on Desktop

The desktop version of the Google Docs app offers several ways to adjust the line spacing of your documents to add double space. The first way to do this will be to use the icon located on the toolbar.

What you will need to do is:

1. Log in to Google Docs, and open the document you are editing and need to double space.
   
2. Highlight the specific text you want to add double spacing by holding down the left mouse click and dragging over the desired text. You can also left-click at the beginning of the text, hold the shift on your keyboard, then left-click again just after the last character you want to highlight. To highlight the entire document, press CTRL + A.
   
3. Once all the necessary text has been highlighted, click the button Line spacing the icon located directly to the right of the icon To justify icon on your toolbar.
   
4. Select the "Double" option from the menu to add double spacing to your text.
   

The second way to add a double space to your text can be done through the “Format” tab. You will need to highlight your text as in the previous steps, then:

1. Click on the "Format" tab to open the menu.
2. In the menu, choose “Line spacing” then “Double”.

Both methods work exactly the same, just one more step for the last option.

Adjust Google Doc Line Spacing on Android and iOS

The instructions provided will work for both Android and iOS devices. No diversion is necessary. You will need to have already downloaded and installed the Google Docs (or Google Drive) app on your device before following the steps below.

To add double spacing to your Android or iOS device:

1. Launch the Google Docs app and open the document you want to add double spacing to.
   
2. Tap blue Edit icon located in the lower right corner of the screen.
   
3. You will need to tap the screen and swipe across the text to highlight it.
   • You can also double-tap and then drag to select an area. If you're trying to highlight a single paragraph, tap once with two fingers. You can also hold down a finger at the beginning and end of a paragraph to highlight everything.
     
4. Tap the icon that looks like an "A" with horizontal lines on the side. It's the Layout icon.
   
5. Switch to the “Paragraph” tab and press the up arrow next to “Line Spacing”.
   
6. Increase the space to "2" and tap the checkmark towards the upper left corner to apply the changes when you're done.
   

All the instructions provided should be more than enough for you to change the line spacing of your documents on both desktop and mobile device apps. If desired, the same instructions can be used to adjust your line spacing to 1 (single) or 1,5 as well. The desktop version also allows for custom spacing which will allow you to adjust the line spacing to any size you like.

Default double space on desktop

The desktop version has another neat little feature that the Android and iOS apps lack – the default double space. This means that every time you open a Google document, the normally 1,15 spacing will automatically be doubled.

To do this:

1. In your web browser (preferably Google Chrome), navigate to Google Docs and open a document.
2. Highlight any already double-spaced text. If you followed, you can do it in the same document you already have open.
3. In the toolbar, click on “Normal text” to pull down a menu.
4. In the menu, click on the arrow located to the right of “Normal text”.
5. You will be given two options: "Apply 'Regular Text'" and "Update 'Regular Text' to match". Choose the second option.
6. In the toolbar again, click on “Normal Text” to pull down a menu.
7. Select "Options" and choose "Save as my default styles".