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Hi bluesaphre,

 Maybe if you try chilling the dough for about 30 minutes that will help. Sometimes a soft dough will spread as it bakes. Try chilling the dough and see if that helps.

Are you replacing it with a lower clorie butter or a sugar substitute like splenda.  i find when i use those types of things it does change my final product a bit.

shortening and margerines have changed their recipes so that they have less trans fat -- because of this they are spreading more. Try to use one with more trans fats in it. I don't have a particular brand to recommend. hope this helps.

I'm having a similar problem!

I live at around 5000 ft so i wonder if that's a problem.

But yeah the cookies spread out and I end up having to cut out the shapes again from this masses of cooked dough, leaving me with lots of "cookie borders" that are useless, and get only 24 cookies instead of 3 dozen.

Please, someone help!

Cathy from the Kitchen said:

 Be sure to use only butter or magarine--vegetable oil spreads (with less than 65% fat), reduced-calorie or low-fat butter or magarine and tub products contain more water than butter or margarine.   This can result in cookies that are soft and loose their shape.

The other possibilty, which may be making the cookies soft and lose their shape and spread, is your butter may be over-softened .  Perfectly-softened butter should give gently to pressure (you should be able to leave a slight indentation with your finger when pressed), but it shouldn't be soft or melted-looking in appearance.  Butter that is too soft or is partially melted results in dough that is too soft, causing cooking to spread too much as they bake.

Soften butter at room temperature 30 to 45 minutes or microwave by removing foil wrapper and placing in a glass bowl, uncovered .  Microwave 1/2 to 1 cup, 15 to 30 seconds on high.          

I won't use any margarine unless it's at least 80%. The lower % have absolutely too much water, making the cookies spread and get too hard. I know, there are recipes that use 65% and they are suppose to be just fine. I tried them and they just didn't measure up to my standards for cookies. Actually I find that when I use lard with my other shortening, my cookies turn out the best in texture, taste and keeping fresh.