Extension of widow/orphan control

[Tosca]

Hi everyone

I have Word 2003 and am aware of widow/orphan control. I need a slight
extension of the concept but don't know if it can be set up easily or if it
might need coding etc.

I prepare documents that have an underlined title, a line space then the
text of the paragraph(s). When the topic changes, there's a line space
after the final paragraph, then a new underlined title, a line space and
then the text of the new paragraph(s). What I need to do is keep the title
line, line space and first line of the paragraph together, rather than
having these three lines split across a page end. Can this be done
automatically? I usually resort to checking the document manually which is
fine but, if I change anything, such as the font, margins etc. I have to go
through the document again to check the page breaks.

Thanks for your time and patience

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Well, to begin with, don't use an empty paragraph to create your "line
space." Use Space Before/After (an easy way to add 12 pts Space Before--the
equivalent of a "blank line"--is to press Ctrl+0). Then apply "Keep with
next" to the heading* (Word's built-in headings styles 1-4 have this
property by default). This will keep your heading with the first two or more
lines of the following paragraph.

*In case you don't know, find "Keep with next" and other similar controls on
the Line and Page Breaks tab of Format | Paragraph.

 

[Tosca]

Thank you Suzanne - I wasn't sure if there was an easy way of doing this or
if there was a workaround. I'll have a play with this.

Regards