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# Indents and Spacing

Sets the indenting and the spacing options for the paragraph.

To change the measurement units used in this dialogue box, choose LibreOffice - PreferencesTools - Options - LibreOffice Writer - General , and then select a new measurement unit in the Settings area.

You can also set indents using the ruler. To display the ruler, choose View - Ruler.

To access this command...

Choose Format - Paragraph - Indents & Spacing tab.

Choose View - Styles - open context menu of an entry and choose Modify/New - Indents & Spacing tab.

## Indent

Specify the amount of space to leave between the left and the right page margins and the paragraph.

### Before text

Enter the amount of space that you want to indent the paragraph from the page margin. If you want the paragraph to extend into the page margin, enter a negative number. In Left-to-Right languages, the left edge of the paragraph is indented with respect to the left page margin. In Right-to-Left languages, the right edge of the paragraph is indented with respect to the right page margin.

### After text

Enter the amount of space that you want to indent the paragraph from the page margin. If you want the paragraph to extend into the page margin, enter a negative number. In Left-to-Right languages, the right edge of the paragraph is indented with respect to the right page margin. In Right-to-Left languages, the left edge of the paragraph is indented with respect to the left page margin.

### First line

Indents the first line of a paragraph by the amount that you enter. To create a hanging indent enter a positive value for "Before text" and a negative value for "First line". To indent the first line of a paragraph that uses numbering or bullets, choose "Format - Bullets and Numbering - Position".

### Automatic

Automatically indents a paragraph according to the font size and the line spacing. The setting in the First Line box is ignored.

## Spacing

Specify the amount of space to leave between selected paragraphs.

### Above paragraph

Enter the amount of space that you want to leave above the selected paragraph(s).

Icon on the Formatting Bar:

Increase Spacing

Decrease Spacing

Icon on the Formatting Bar:

Increase Spacing

Decrease Spacing

### Below paragraph

Enter the amount of space that you want to leave below the selected paragraph(s).

### Do not add space between paragraphs of the same style

Makes any space specified before or after this paragraph not be applied when the preceding and following paragraphs are of the same paragraph style.

## Line spacing

Specify the amount of space to leave between lines of text in a paragraph.

### Single

Applies single line spacing to the current paragraph. This is the default setting.

Line Spacing 1

### 1.15 lines

Sets the line spacing to 1.15 lines.

Line Spacing 1.15

### 1.5 lines

Sets the line spacing to 1.5 lines.

Line Spacing 1.5

### Double

Sets the line spacing to two lines.

Line Spacing 2

### Proportional

Select this option and then enter a percentage value in the box, where 100% corresponds to single line spacing.

### At Least

Sets the minimum line spacing to the value that you enter in the box.

If you use different font sizes within a paragraph, the line spacing is automatically adjusted to the largest font size. If you prefer to have identical spacing for all lines, specify a value in At least that corresponds to the largest font size.

### Leading

Sets the height of the vertical space that is inserted between two lines.

### Fixed

Sets the line spacing to exactly match the value that you enter in the box. This can result in cropped characters.

## of

Enter the value to use for the line spacing.

## Activate page line-spacing

Aligns the baseline of each line of text to a vertical document grid, so that each line is the same height. To use this feature, you must first activate the Use page line-spacing option for the current page style. Choose Format - Page Style, click on the Page tab, and then select the Use page line-spacing box in the Layout settings section.

### Preview Field

Displays a preview of the current selection.

### Reset

Resets changes made to the current tab to those applicable when this dialogue box was opened.

Related Topics

Indenting Paragraphs

Printing with Page line-spacing