Column and Page Break Problem

[Guest]

I have Word 2002. I have set up a simple two column page. At the top of the
each column is a Header Style (Bold text with background shading black
background with white text) and then plain old Body Text. At the end of the
body text I end with a paragraph return then insert a column break to start
at the top of the next column.

I start the next column with the same Header Style and then the next para is
body text. Simple eh? Except that the column break in the first column is
formatted (attached) to the 2nd columns Header Style thus an unwanted black
bar appears at the bottom of the first column. The work around seems to just
keep hitting Enter until the text is forced to the next column instead of
inserting a column break. An awful workaround I agree. Any solutions out
there?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Force a column break by formatting the header and as many subsequent
paragraphs as necessary as "Keep with next" and "Keep lines together." The
workaround for this problem with page breaks is to use "Page break before"
formatting for the heading, but unfortunately there's no "Column break
before" property.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Guest]

Thanks, I tried that and nothing seems to change. I tried looking in Help to
find out the purpose of 'Keep with next ' and 'Keep lines together' but there
is no entry. How does their select 'force a column break'? I still get a
black bar where the Column break is located in the first column.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Instead of inserting a column break, select your heading, go to Format |
Paragraph, select the Line and Page Breaks tab, and make sure that "Keep
with next" is checked (if you've used a built-in heading style, it will be).
Do the same for the paragraph following the heading, but also check "Keep
lines together." Continue to do this for subsequent paragraphs until you
have built up a large enough block to force the text into the next column
(because it is too large to fit into the previous column).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Guest]

It works! - thanks for the explanation.

Instead of inserting a column break, select your heading, go to Format |
Paragraph, select the Line and Page Breaks tab, and make sure that "Keep
with next" is checked (if you've used a built-in heading style, it will be).
Do the same for the paragraph following the heading, but also check "Keep
lines together." Continue to do this for subsequent paragraphs until you
have built up a large enough block to force the text into the next column
(because it is too large to fit into the previous column).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.