How to Change Line Spacing in PowerPoint (Exact Values)

To change line spacing in PowerPoint, select the text and pick a value from Line Spacing in the Paragraph group of the Home tab. For values the menu doesn't offer, such as 1.15 or 1.2, open Line Spacing Options, set Line Spacing to Multiple and type the number. The default Office theme starts body text at 0.9, which feels cramped once bullets wrap onto a second line, and decks merged from several teams end up with a different density on every slide. Fixing that by eye costs a minute a slide; with set values and the right order, a 30-slide deck takes a few minutes.

Line Spacing vs. Paragraph Spacing

Line spacing is the distance between lines within one paragraph. Spacing Before and After set the distance between paragraphs. In a bulleted list, each item is its own paragraph, so the gap between items comes from paragraph spacing, and the gap between wrapped lines of one item comes from line spacing. Increasing line spacing to separate items also spreads the lines inside each item, and the list loses its shape.

There are two ways to set line spacing. Multiple scales with the font: 1.2 gives proportionally the same look at 18 pt or 24 pt. Exactly fixes the line height in points regardless of font size. Use Multiple for body text whose size may change, and Exactly where row height must stay constant, as in a table.

Multiple is based on the font's own line height, not just its point size. The same 18 pt at 1.0 looks slightly different from font to font, so set your standard using the template's actual font.

Also note the difference between Enter and Shift+Enter. Enter starts a new paragraph, so paragraph spacing applies and a new bullet appears. Shift+Enter breaks the line inside the same paragraph, so only line spacing applies.

Click the placeholder's border to apply a change to every paragraph in it; with just a cursor in the text, only that paragraph changes.

How to Change Line Spacing

Quick values from the Home tab

Select the text, click Line Spacing in the Paragraph group, and pick 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 or 3.0. The menu moves in steps of 0.5, so anything in between needs Line Spacing Options. PowerPoint has no default shortcut for line spacing. If you use it often, right-click the button, add it to the Quick Access Toolbar, and press Alt plus its position number.

Set 1.15 or 1.2 with Multiple

1. Click the dialog launcher at the bottom right of the Paragraph group, or Line Spacing Options in the menu.
2. On Indents and Spacing, under Spacing, set Line Spacing to Multiple.
3. Type 1.15 or 1.2 in At and click OK.

Microsoft's spacing guide notes that Multiple accepts values up to 9.99, and Exactly takes a point value from 0 to 1584. Values below 1, such as 0.9, are fine and useful for tightening a two-line title.

Use Exactly carefully

An exact value must be larger than the font size. Equal or smaller, and the line can't hold the characters, so the tops get clipped. For 18 pt text, start at Exactly 22 pt, about 1.2 times the font size. If you later enlarge the text in a box set to Exactly, lines overlap, so revisit the spacing whenever the size changes.

Separate items with Before or After

Enter points in Before or After in the same dialog. Use only one of the two, for example 6 pt Before and 0 pt After, so there's no stray space above the first item or below the last. Don't separate items with blank lines; heights vary from slide to slide and blank lines can pick up a bullet. With two list levels, give level 2 a smaller value, such as 10 pt for level 1 and 4 pt for level 2, so details read as part of the item above them.

Default Values and a Starting Standard

The body placeholder in PowerPoint's default Office theme starts at Multiple 0.9 with 10 pt before first-level paragraphs. That suits short one-line bullets but feels tight for sentences that wrap. These are workable starting points for business decks:

Consistency matters more than the exact value. Once you pick the numbers, write them in the template's first-slide notes or your team's style guide so the next person uses them too.

Worked Example: A Deck Merged from Three Teams

An HR coordinator at a manufacturing company is bringing the onboarding plan for next quarter's new hires to the leadership meeting. HR wrote the program overview and schedule, facilities wrote the room and equipment checklist, and IT added account setup. All the body text is 18 pt, but one slide is at 1.0, another at 1.5 and a third at Exactly 20 pt.

1. Open Slide Sorter and note the slides whose text density stands out.
2. On the overview slide, where sentences wrap, select the body placeholder and set Multiple 1.2, Before 10 pt, After 0 pt.
3. Set one-line lists, such as the schedule and checklist, to Multiple 1.1 and Before 6 pt.
4. Select a finished box, double-click Format Painter, and click the matching boxes on other slides. Press Esc when done.
5. On the slide that had Exactly 20 pt, open the Paragraph dialog to confirm it changed. If a box mixed different values, select the whole box and type the values directly; an empty field in the dialog means the selected paragraphs disagree.
6. Return to Slide Sorter and check that every slide has the same density.

The six slides now read as if one person made them, so leadership focuses on dates and owners. Next quarter, copy the file and update names and dates.

👉 PowerPoint Bullets and Numbering: Fix Spacing and Levels

Apply It to the Whole Deck with Slide Master

For a recurring report, store the values in the template. On the View tab, open Slide Master, select the body placeholder on the top master slide, set line and paragraph spacing for each level, and click Close Master View. Every layout and slide on that master follows.

Boxes where someone set spacing by hand don't follow the master. Select those slides and click Reset in the Slides group of the Home tab to clear manual formatting. You can select many slides and reset them at once.

When Line Spacing Won't Change

AutoFit is on. When text overflows a placeholder, PowerPoint shrinks the text and tightens line spacing to fit. As Microsoft's article on overflowing text explains, the AutoFit Options button appears at the lower left of the overflowing box; choose Stop Fitting Text to This Placeholder. You can also right-click the box, choose Format Shape, and under Text Options > Text Box select Do not Autofit. If the text overflows, splitting it across two slides reads better.

An Exactly value is left over. If choosing a Multiple doesn't change anything, another paragraph in the box may still be set to Exactly. Select the whole box and set Multiple again.

Table rows won't get shorter. Row height can't drop below the text height plus the cell margins. Select the table, and on the table Layout tab set Cell Margins to Narrow or None, then set line spacing to 1.0.

The text looks crowded at the top. That's vertical alignment, not spacing. Use Align Text in the Paragraph group to choose Top, Middle or Bottom.

Differences Across Versions

PowerPoint for Microsoft 365, 2021 and 2019 on Windows match the steps above. PowerPoint for Mac opens the same paragraph settings from Line Spacing Options on the Home tab. In PowerPoint for the web, Line Spacing Options doesn't include Exactly, so set fixed table spacing in the desktop app.

FAQ

Q. Where do I type 1.15 or 1.2?

The Home tab menu doesn't list them. Open Line Spacing Options, choose Multiple and type the value in At.

Q. Should I use Multiple or Exactly?

Multiple for body text whose size may change; Exactly for tables and anything that needs constant row height. Set Exactly to at least 1.2 times the font size so letters aren't clipped.

Q. How do I add space between bullets without spreading the lines inside each one?

Use Before or After. Keep line spacing as it is and raise Before from 6 pt to 10 pt; lines inside each item stay put.

Q. I reduced line spacing and it widened again. Why?

AutoFit recalculated it while fitting the text to the box. Choose Stop Fitting Text from AutoFit Options, then set the spacing again.

How inline AI Keeps Deck Formatting Consistent

If your team builds reports from slides several groups contributed, inline AI opens the deck, applies one line and paragraph spacing standard to each kind of box, and leaves tables that need fixed heights as they are. It writes the same values into the template's slide master, so the next deck starts out right.