Adjusting Line and Page Breaks

Word enables you to control how paragraphs break across pages. You can, for example, prevent a paragraph from being split across pages, or instruct Word to insert a page break immediately before a paragraph so that it always appears at the top of a page.

To make these kinds of changes, click in the paragraph you want to affect (or select multiple adjacent paragraphs to affect all of them), choose Format, Paragraph, click the Line and Page Breaks tab (see Figure 7.16), mark the desired check boxes, and click OK.

Figure 7.16. The Line and Page Breaks tab of the Paragraph dialog box enables you to control how your paragraphs break across pages.

Here is a description of the options in the Line and Page Breaks tab:

• Widow/Orphan Control ” This option, marked by default, prevents widows and orphans (single lines of text at the top or bottom of a page). When Word has to split a paragraph across a page break, it adjusts the position of the break to keep a minimum of two lines above or below the break.

• Keep Lines Together ” If you mark this check box, the paragraph does not split across a page break. If the paragraph won't fit in its entirety at the bottom of a page, Word moves it to the top of the next page.

• Keep with Next ” This option keeps the paragraph on the same page as the paragraph that follows it.

• Page Break Before ” This option forces a page break immediately above the selected paragraph. You can mark this check box for a heading that you want to appear at the top of a page.