In my fifteen years of teaching and tutoring tech, I’ve seen everything–and come up with solutions for all of it. I’ll share those with you. My goal: That students (of all ages) feel empowered not frightened by technology, that it is fun not frustrating. These tips will get you there with you and your kids.
Q: My Word 2010 came with a double space between paragraphs as the default, but I don’t like that. I’ve tried to reset it to single space, but it doesn’t fix it. What do I do?
A: I don’t either. What was Bill Gates thinking? Don’t as many people start a paragraph with a tab indent as a double space between paragraphs?
Now I have to fix that every time I open a Word doc. Here’s how to do it (in Word 2010):
- Go to Page Layout
- Go to Paragraph, Spacing
- Make sure ‘after’ is set to 0–not 10.
To make this the default:
- Under the ‘Home’ tab, go to ‘Paragraph
- Click the little dot in the lower right corner
- Change the ‘after’ spacing to 0
- At the bottom of the dialog box, click ‘set as default’.
Now the world spins just a bit nicer.
Questions you want answered? Leave a comment here and I’ll answer it within the next thirty days.
Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-12 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, webmaster for four blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice, CSTA presentation reviewer, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, contributor to NEA Today, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.
