When you press Enter twice to insert a "blank line," you are inserting an
empty paragraph. If you display nonprinting characters (Ctrl+* or click on
the Show/Hide ¶ button), you will see that the "blank line" Word is
numbering contains a paragraph mark.
Instead of pressing Enter twice, you can easily insert 12 pts Space Before
by pressing Ctrl+0 (zero). Or you can go to Format | Paragraph and add the
specific amount of Space Before or Space After that you prefer. Or, instead
of using the Normal style, you can use the built-in Body Text style, which
by default has 6 pts Space After.
--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org