How to Double Space in Google Docs

Double spacing in Google Docs takes a few clicks on desktop and a few taps on your mobile device. To apply it, highlight your text, open the formatting menu, navigate to Line & paragraph spacing, and select Double. That covers most cases.

If you need to set it for an entire document, apply it to a blank doc before you start typing, or use it as your default style so every new Google Doc opens with double spacing already on. Both methods are covered below, along with how to do it on the Google Docs app for iPhone, Android, and iPad.

MLA and APA both require double spacing throughout the body text, which makes this one of the most common formatting tasks in Google Docs.

How to Double Space in Google Docs on Desktop

Here is how to apply double spacing in Google Docs on a desktop browser:

1. Open your document in Google Docs, or create a new one.
2. To double-space text that is already in your document, select the text you want to change. To apply it to the entire document, press ctrl + A (or Command + A on Mac) to select everything at once.

3. 

4. Click Format in the top menu bar to open the formatting menu. From there, click Line and paragraph spacing. This opens a dropdown menu with your spacing options.
5. Click Double.

Your selected text now uses double spacing. For a custom value, choose Custom spacing from the same dropdown menu and enter your preferred line height. If you need 1.5 spacing instead, that option appears in the same list.

You can also reach line spacing faster using the toolbar shortcut: look for the line spacing icon (four horizontal lines with arrows) directly in the toolbar, which opens the same dropdown menu without going through Format.

How to Set Double Spacing as the Default in Google Docs

Setting double spacing as your default means every new document opens with it already applied. This is a desktop-only setting and is not available in the Google Docs app on mobile.

1. Apply double spacing to some text using the steps above.
2. With that text selected, click the Normal text dropdown in the toolbar (the Styles menu).

3. 

4. Hover over Normal text in the dropdown menu. Click the arrow to its right.
5. Select Update ‘Normal text’ to match. This updates the base style to double spacing.
6. Click the Normal text dropdown again, then click Options at the bottom.
7. Select Save as my default styles.

From here on, new documents will open with double spacing. If you need to reset to the original defaults, go back to Options and choose Reset styles.

If you are also formatting for a specific style guide, the indent and hanging indent settings are separate from line spacing. See our guide on how to indent in Google Docs for that.

How to Double Space in the Google Docs App on Mobile

You can apply double spacing from the Google Docs app on iPhone, Android, and iPad. The default feature is not available in the mobile app, but applying spacing to selected text or an entire document works fine.

1. Open your document in the Google Docs app and tap the pencil icon to enter edit mode.
2. Select the text you want to double-space. On Android, tap and hold a word to start the selection, then drag the handles. On iPhone, double-tap a word and drag to select more.
3. To apply spacing to the entire document from the mobile app, tap anywhere in the text, then use Select All from the edit menu.
4. Tap the Format icon in the toolbar (on Android it looks like four lines with an A; on iPhone it is an underlined A).
5. Tap Paragraph.
6. Under Line Spacing, tap the up arrow until the value reaches 2 or 2.00.
7. Tap anywhere outside the formatting panel to close it.

The mobile layout is cleaner than it used to be, but the line spacing control is buried one level deeper than on desktop. If you use double spacing regularly, setting the default on desktop first is faster than adjusting it every time in the mobile app.

Double spacing affects readability on screen as well as in print. If your document looks harder to skim than expected, it may be worth switching to 1.5 spacing for on-screen work and reserving double spacing for documents you are submitting or printing.

For more Google Docs formatting help, Spreadsheet Point has guides on hanging indents, MLA format, and checking word count if you are formatting an academic paper.

Troubleshooting

If your spacing keeps reverting, the most common cause is a conflict with the document’s default style. To fix it, select all text with ctrl + A, apply double spacing manually, then save it as your default style using the steps above.

If only part of your document changed, you may not have had all the text selected when you applied the spacing. Use ctrl + A to select the entire document and reapply.