How to Change Character Spacing in Microsoft Word

Published: April 27, 2022

Last Modified: April 5, 2023

This article shows you the steps you can take to change the character spacing of text in a Microsoft Word document.

There are many reasons why you might want to change the character spacing of text. Word offers various text settings using advanced font and character options, and by changing the character spacing, you can give standard fonts more uniqueness and artistic variety.

To change the character spacing, open a document and pre-select a piece of text, then on the Home tab, in the “Font” group, click on the small arrow in the lower right corner of the group.

In the Font window that opens, select the Advanced tab. The following options are available in the Character Spacing section: Scale, Spacing, Offset, Kerning.

Also at the bottom of the window in the “Sample” section is an area in which you will see how the text changes when you change certain parameters.

All character spacing settings are discussed below.

Scale

This parameter allows you to change the horizontal scale of the selected fragment, that is, stretch the fragment in width. The value can be selected from the drop-down list or entered manually in the input field.

Interval

This parameter allows you to increase (sparse) or decrease (compacted) the distance between characters. Measured in points. Multiples of 0.1 pip can be used.

Bias

This parameter allows you to set the offset up or down the selected fragment, relative to the rest of the text. Measured in points.

Kerning

If you enable this option, then Word will automatically select the optimal spacing between different letters. You can enable the setting only for a specific font size on the page. The larger the font, the more noticeable this effect will be.

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