When you are comparing two different content blocks in your email and notice that the line spacing or text formatting doesn't match—especially when testing how it looks in Outlook—it usually comes down to conflicting settings or hidden code.
If you are experiencing inconsistent formatting between blocks, go through these four troubleshooting steps to identify and fix the issue.
1. Ensure paragraph formats are consistent
Make sure that "Normal" body text and your appropriate headlines are being used the exact same way in both blocks.
The Outlook Quirk: It is a common mistake to accidentally format a whole block of content as a headline, but shrink the font size down so it looks like normal body text. However, headlines and standard paragraph text behave very differently when calculating line heights, particularly in Outlook.
Accessibility: Using the correct paragraph formats (reserving headlines for actual titles and "Normal" for body copy) isn't just for visual consistency; it is also a vital requirement for screen readers and email accessibility.
2. Review your line spacing settings
Click into each block and check the specific line height settings located in your sidebar controls.
What to check: Take note of the exact line height settings for both your normal text and your headlines in both blocks to ensure they match.
A common trap: Pay close attention to the margin below controls. It is very easy to confuse this setting with line height. If one block has a bottom margin applied and the other doesn't, the spacing will look drastically different.
3. Check how font sizes are applied
Whenever possible, use the block font size (highlighted in green) rather than inline font size (highlighted in red).
Are your font sizes set on the entire block, or are they set "inline" on specific highlighted words? Setting font sizes in two different ways (inline via the text toolbar and globally on the block via the sidebar) is a primary cause of inconsistent line heights.
Best Practice: We strongly recommend setting your font sizes at the block level using the sidebar controls, rather than selecting batches of text and changing the size from the inline text toolbar.
4. Clear formatting and rely on sidebar controls
If you have reviewed the steps above and the blocks still look different, you likely have hidden inline styles overriding your settings. To fix this, you need to start from a clean slate.
Reset the text: Highlight your text and use the Clear Formatting button in the editor toolbar to strip away all hidden inline styles.
Use the sidebar: Once cleared, rely exclusively on the sidebar controls to style the whole block. Only use the inline toolbar if you need to specifically highlight or change a very small selection of text (like bolding a single word).
Paste safely: Whenever you are adding new content from an external document, always use the "Paste without formatting" shortcut (
Ctrl + Shift + Von Windows, orCommand + Shift + Von Mac) to prevent invisible formatting bugs from sneaking into your blocks.