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You can adjust the amount of space between lines of text and above and below paragraphs in your slides in PowerPoint 97/2000. You can do this on a per-slide basis; or, if you want to change line spacing in the entire presentation, you can change it on the slide master.

To change line spacing on a single slide

1. In the slide pane, click anywhere in the paragraph you want to change.
   To apply the line spacing to other paragraphs within the placeholder, select all the paragraphs that you want to change. (The placeholder is the box that the text is contained in.)
   To change line spacing for all the text in multiple placeholders on the slide, press SHIFT and then click each text area to display each placeholder border. This selects the placeholders.
2. On the Format menu, click Line Spacing.
3. Do any or all of the following:

• To change the amount of space between text lines in a paragraph: under Line spacing, enter the amount of spacing you want, and then click Lines or Points (points are a smaller unit of measurement than lines).
• To change the amount of space that follows a paragraph: under After paragraph, enter the amount of spacing you want, and then click Lines or Points.
• To change the amount of space that precedes a paragraph: under Before paragraph, enter the amount of spacing you want, and then click Lines or Points.

The new line spacing applies to the current paragraph, selection, or text in selected placeholders and to any new text you type within a placeholder where you've changed the line spacing.

Tip   You can change line spacing on multiple slides at once. In PowerPoint 2000, in the outline pane, select the text you want to change, and then follow steps 2-3, above. In PowerPoint 97, click the Outline View button in the lower left of the PowerPoint window to switch to outline view, then select the text and change the spacing.

To change line spacing throughout the presentation

1. On the View menu, point to Master, and then click Slide Master.
2. On the slide master, click the level of text you want to change.
3. Follow steps 2-3, above.
4. On the Master toolbar, click Close.

All new text that you type and all the existing text that you typed using default text styles will reflect the latest line-spacing settings on the slide master. However, any text you have changed manually (that is, on selected slides rather than on the slide master) will not be affected by the new master settings.