How to Make Periods Bigger on Your Word Document

There are a variety of reasons why you may want to increase the size of punctuation marks in your Word document: whether you're making periods easier to see on a printed page, seeking out subtle ways to make a document reach a specific number of pages, or adding some stylistic flair, changing the size of a period, question mark or exclamation point can help. There are a variety of methods available to make periods bigger or change the size of punctuation without increasing the size of your document's text – though some processes can be more time consuming than others. Students should be advised, however: While increasing the size of periods may increase the length of a word document, many teachers are familiar with the 'trick' and will take notice.

The simplest way to make periods bigger in a word document is to manually increase their size. This can be done in any version of Word, as well as in any alternative word processor (OpenOffice, Google Docs, e.t.c.). To do this, simply click and drag to select the period or other punctuation mark, then increase the font size via the menu located above your active document. Though this is the simplest option, it may not be suitable for certain tasks. Adjusting more than a handful punctuation marks through this method can be incredibly time-consuming – even when copying and pasting the bigger punctuation mark over normally-sized marks later in the document. As a result, this method works best when used for aesthetic purposes.

When you need to change the size of punctuation marks across the whole of a document, using the "Find and Replace" tool in Word is dramatically faster than manually making periods bigger – though it requires navigation of a few menus. To begin, select the "Replace" option in the menu above your active word document (or in older versions of Word, select the "Edit" menu at the top of the program window, then click "Find and Replace"), or press the "Ctrl" and "H" keys together. This will open the "Find and Replace" menu. From this menu, type a period or other punctuation mark into both the "Find what" and "Replace with" text boxes. Click the "More" button at the bottom of the window, then select the "Format" button. Select "Font" from the menu that appears, and you will be able to customize the font, size, and style of the new punctuation marks. Click "OK" after making your desired selections, then select "Replace all" in the "Find and Replace" window. All of the punctuation in your document will have changed to the size you selected.

Microsoft Word – and most other modern word processors – offer a wide variety of customization options. In any given document, the font can be changed, text can be resized, and both margins and page layout can be adjusted to suit the user's needs. If you wish to permanently make the periods in your word document larger, however, you will run into a problem: There is no way to permanently adjust the size of punctuation marks and punctuation marks alone in Word. While it is possible to use the "Style" menu to adjust the default font and font size, along with paragraph indentations and other document traits, increasing the size of periods alone will require you to locate and import a custom font with larger periods – which may complicate some tasks, depending on text styling requirements.