Office Settings & Configuration

How to Fix Outlook Emails Arriving with Double Spacing

Aamir Naveed Akram Sep 29, 2026 869 views

Question details

The user needs to fix an issue where emails drafted with single spacing in Microsoft Outlook appear double-spaced when received by others.

How to Fix Outlook Emails Arriving with Double Spacing

Product: Microsoft Outlook
Device & OS: not provided
Scenario: Composing and sending emails to various recipients using an email client.
Observed behavior: Emails composed with single spacing are unexpectedly received and displayed with double spacing or excessive line breaks by the recipient's mail program.

Before you start

Ensure you have access to an alternative email account (such as a web-based Gmail or Yahoo account) to send a test message to yourself, allowing you to observe how the formatting renders on different platforms.

Solution 1Recommended

Adjust Paragraph Spacing and Remove Hidden Formatting

Use built-in formatting settings and soft returns to ensure your email text renders cleanly across all mail clients.

Differences in how email clients interpret HTML and CSS often cause formatting discrepancies. Outlook uses a specific HTML rendering engine that treats standard line breaks as new paragraphs, which other mail programs may display with extra padding.

Paste without formatting

If you are copying text from a document or webpage, right-click the email body and select the 'Keep Text Only' paste option, or press 'Ctrl+Shift+V'. This strips away hidden HTML styles that cause double spacing.

Configure paragraph spacing

Highlight your text in Outlook, navigate to the 'Format Text' tab, and click the 'Paragraph' settings dialogue box launcher. Ensure 'Spacing Before' and 'After' are set to 0 pt, and 'Line spacing' is set to Single.

Use soft returns

Instead of pressing the 'Enter' key to create a new line (which starts a new paragraph), press 'Shift+Enter'. This inserts a soft return, forcing a line break without adding extra paragraph spacing.

Send a test email

Send a test message containing the newly formatted text to your own secondary email address. Open it in a different mail client (like Gmail or Apple Mail) to verify that the spacing issue is resolved.

Adjust Paragraph Spacing and Remove Hidden Formatting

Formatting Origins: Comparing the message in multiple clients helps identify whether the issue is caused by Outlook's composition settings, the recipient’s specific mail program rendering, or pasted formatting from external sources.

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Draft Clean, Professional Text with WPS Office

While Outlook handles your email delivery, drafting your professional content in a highly compatible, lightweight word processor can prevent complex HTML formatting errors. WPS Office is a free, lightweight suite that offers excellent compatibility with Microsoft Office formats, ensuring your text maintains its intended spacing when copied over to your email client.

1. Download WPS Office: Visit the official WPS website and download the free WPS Office suite for your operating system.
2. Draft your content: Open WPS Writer and draft your email content using standard, clean paragraph spacing.
3. Copy to your email client: Copy your text from WPS Writer and paste it directly into your email client for a clean, single-spaced result.

Excellent compatibility with Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint formats.Lightweight and fast, ensuring smooth drafting without complex formatting glitches.Clean text rendering that prevents double-spacing issues when copying into email clients.Familiar, easy-to-use interface that requires no learning curve.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why do my emails look single-spaced to me but double-spaced to the recipient?

Outlook uses Microsoft Word's HTML rendering engine, which treats pressing the 'Enter' key as a new paragraph rather than a simple line break. If the recipient's email client adds extra padding to paragraphs by default, the text will appear double-spaced.

How can I prevent double spacing when copying text from a website into Outlook?

Websites often use different HTML tags for spacing. To avoid bringing over web formatting, right-click in your email body and select the 'Keep Text Only' paste option, or use the 'Ctrl+Shift+V' keyboard shortcut to paste plain text.

What is the difference between a hard return and a soft return in an email?

A hard return (created by pressing 'Enter') starts a completely new paragraph, which may include extra vertical space depending on the email client. A soft return (created by pressing 'Shift+Enter') creates a simple line break within the same paragraph, keeping the text single-spaced.

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