Page Break Spacing in Word

[sbrown33]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

I'm creating a document on a PC that has multiple manual page breaks. For example, after the Table of Contents on the first page, I inserted a page break to move the first section of material to the second page. The headings for each section are formatted with the "Heading" Style so that they can be picked up by the Table of Contents.

When this document is opened on a Mac, there is an extra line above all of the page breaks. I've tried several test documents that use this Heading style and include a page break, and each time, the Mac version of Word inserts that extra line.

Any suggestions on how to solve this problem?

 

[John McGhie]

Hi:

These kinds of problems are why we recommend to avoid hard page breaks in
long documents ‹ otherwise you spend all your time "putting them right"
every time you make a change

In this case, it is probably due to the fact that the Heading style in use
(which one? There are nine...) has Space Before set in its properties.

On the PC, Word will suppress display of the space above, on the Mac, Word
will do this only if you set an option in Compatibility Options to suppress
the space above.

Normally, I use Heading 1 style for material that should begin a page.

Then I define Heading 1 style to have 0 Space Before and "Page Break
Before".

This means no wandering space at the top of the page, and no nasty hard page
breaks. On either platform.

To accurately control pagination, use "Keep With Next" to hold chunks of
body paragraphs together. Keep With Next works only if you also set "Keep
Lines Together", which presupposes you turn OFF "Widow/Orphan control" in
your body text styles.

It sounds complicated, but it isn't once you get used to it. And it
produces a document that automatically paginates correctly without having to
muddle around with hard page breaks which all have to be moved every time
anything changes.

Hope this helps

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

I'm creating a document on a PC that has multiple manual page breaks. For
example, after the Table of Contents on the first page, I inserted a page
break to move the first section of material to the second page. The headings
for each section are formatted with the "Heading" Style so that they can be
picked up by the Table of Contents.

When this document is opened on a Mac, there is an extra line above all of the
page breaks. I've tried several test documents that use this Heading style and
include a page break, and each time, the Mac version of Word inserts that
extra line.

Any suggestions on how to solve this problem?

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Clive Huggan]

On 6/8/09 6:55 AM, in article C6A02EC4.1D3A%[email protected], "John McGhie"

It sounds complicated, but it isn't once you get used to it. And it
produces a document that automatically paginates correctly without having to
muddle around with hard page breaks which all have to be moved every time
anything changes.

The productivity gains from using these practices are huge, as John and all
professional document developers know (in my case I save about 20% of my
time by using these "minimum maintenance" practices, including customized
styles).

For more information on minimum maintenance, see pages 164-171 of some notes
on the way I use Word for the Mac, titled "Bend Word to Your Will", which
are available as a free download from the Word MVPs' website
(http://word.mvps.org/Mac/Bend/BendWordToYourWill.html).

[Note: "Bend Word to your will" is designed to be used electronically and
most subjects are self-contained dictionary-style entries. If you decide to
read more widely than the item I've referred to, it's important to read the
front end of the document -- especially pages 3 and 5 -- so you can select
some Word settings that will allow you to use the document effectively.]


Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is 5-11 hours different from the Americas and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
====================================================

 

[Snit]

Clive Huggan stated in post
C6A034B5.42142%[email protected] on 8/5/09 2:20 PM:

On 6/8/09 6:55 AM, in article C6A02EC4.1D3A%[email protected], "John McGhie"

It sounds complicated, but it isn't once you get used to it. And it
produces a document that automatically paginates correctly without having to
muddle around with hard page breaks which all have to be moved every time
anything changes.

The productivity gains from using these practices are huge, as John and all
professional document developers know (in my case I save about 20% of my
time by using these "minimum maintenance" practices, including customized
styles).

For more information on minimum maintenance, see pages 164-171 of some notes
on the way I use Word for the Mac, titled "Bend Word to Your Will", which
are available as a free download from the Word MVPs' website
(http://word.mvps.org/Mac/Bend/BendWordToYourWill.html).

[Note: "Bend Word to your will" is designed to be used electronically and
most subjects are self-contained dictionary-style entries. If you decide to
read more widely than the item I've referred to, it's important to read the
front end of the document -- especially pages 3 and 5 -- so you can select
some Word settings that will allow you to use the document effectively.]


Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is 5-11 hours different from the Americas and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
====================================================

Just downloaded it... seems excellent, though it will take more than a few
minutes to read.