Sometimes, it’s not what you say, but how many pages you take to say it. In the event that you have a page limit and don’t wish to change your wording, there are a few ways to further ‘scrunch’ your lines without sacrificing readability.
- Reduce the font size of blank lines between paragraphs.
- Replace superscripts where you can (they push lines apart).
- Use a font with proportional spacing, if allowed.
- Find + Replace all instances of double spaces with single spaces.
- If you have tables, try to widen them to reduce their vertical length.
- Make the page margins smaller, if allowed.
Now, if you’re willing to sacrifice a little readability, here are some more extreme methods. Don’t use these without trying the tips above first!
Highlight your text and click Format → Font. Clear out the ‘Size’ field and enter a slightly smaller number. You can use decimals to fine tune your font size.
Highlight your text and click Format → Font → Character spacing. In the ‘Spacing’ drop-down menu, click ‘Condensed’ and adjust the space between letters using the arrows on the right. Anything greater than 0.3 pt is too tight.
Highlight your text and click Format → Paragraph. In the ‘Line spacing’ drop-down menu, click ‘Exactly’ and, in the ‘At’ box, enter a number no less than one full point below the original font size. Remember, you can use decimals.
When scrunching, never forget about readability or uniformity. Don’t scrunch any more than necessary, and whatever you do, do it throughout the document.
