Compatibility Options can have an effect. But see the article I referenced
earlier.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Melody Koh" wrote in message
news
Hi CyberTaz,

Thanks for your response. However, I'm 100% sure that my spacing is wider
even though all of us use 12'' New Times Rome with the same margin (since
they're the required formats for the assignment). What else could be the
cause and how should I solve it?

Thanks,
Melody

"CyberTaz" wrote:

Hi Melody-

Are you using the same Font Size as the other students? If not, the
number
of characters per line as well as the number of lines per page will be
different.

'Single Spaced' is _not_ an absolute measurement. It is proportionately
based on font size. IOW, single spaced for 10 pt type will be less than
single spaced for 12 pt type, regardless of which font is used. (There
can
also be some deviation in line spacing built into certain fonts based on
their overall design, but I doubt that is the case here.)

Also, there can be a significant difference in the width of the
characters
in one font as opposed to another of the same point size, even though
the 2
fonts may look very much alike. Therefore, wider characters + more space
between them = fewer characters per line-fewer lines per page.

Another issue is whether you are using the same margin settings as the
other
students. If you use wider margin settings you'll get less text per page
even
if the other specs are identical.

HTH |:)
"Melody Koh" wrote:

Whenever I use Single spacing for my assignments, I always notice that
my
piece of paper has much less words than all my other classmates- my
spacing
is just wider even though I checked million times that I used single
spacing
(same problem for double spacing). I'm in the U.S. but my windows XP
is in
Chinese (my Office 2002 is in English though)- is this the cause of
the
problem? How should I do to permanently change the spacing settion so
that
it'll be the same with everyone else's word documents?