It may seem logical to have two spaces after a word to denote the beginning of a new sentence. Why? It helps to combat the natural tendency of collapsing all the texts into unspaced line of characters. Also, one-spaced writing type has a uniform appearance and two spaces between sentences can break up the monotonous form of reading and make the texts easier to read.
Unfortunately, Microsoft Word cannot automatically add two spaces after a period or adjust typing for spacing you prefer as in WordPerfect but it can be achieved with a bit of work. Microsoft Word can however, be configured to change the Spelling & Grammar settings to add two spaces after the each sentence and match your preference. Here’s how to do it!
Add 2 spaces after a period in Word
Go to Microsoft Word and click the ‘File’ tab.
From the list of options displayed, chose ‘Options’.
When presented with the ‘Word Options’ dialog box, click ‘Proofing’ in the list of items on the left.
Later, under the ‘When correcting spelling and grammar in Word‘ section, hit the ‘Settings’ button adjacent to the ‘Writing Style’ drop-down list on the right side.
When the ‘Grammar Settings’ dialog box displays, select “2” from the “Spaces required between sentences” drop-down list under the ‘Require’ section. Click “OK” to accept the change and close the dialog box.
Click “OK” on the “Word Options” dialog box to close it.
All done! Word 2013 will now flag each occurrence of a single space after a period.
As mentioned earlier, there’s no default setting that can automatically insert 2 spaces after each period (at the end of a sentence) but this trick should help users who are in the habit of writing a lot of college papers with the standard APA writing style that requires/mandates 2 spaces be inserted at the end of every sentence.