"PAGE BREAK BEFORE" discrepancy

[Subligaria]

I'm using Word 2007.

Can anyone suggest why applying the "Page break before" feature in the
Paragraph dialog to successive headings should result in some pages with a
bigger gap before the head than others?

In every case, each head has a "spacing before" value of 12 pt (both in the
underlying style and in terms of manual formatting). In some headings,
however, there is a perceptibly bigger gap . . .

 

[Peter T. Daniels]

Turn on your Non-Printing Characters (Ctrl-Shift-8) and see whether
there are any empty paragraphs that could be messing up your
pagination.

See whether "Keep with next" is turned on in any of your paragraphs or
styles. Also "Keep with next." Or maybe in Page Setup, you have
Vertical Spacing set to Justified. Make it "Top."

Also there's an option for "Suppress extra space at the top of a
page." Maybe that could override individual settings.

 

[Subligaria]

Hi,

Thanks.

None of these apply. Not sure about "Suppress extra space at the top of a
page." Can't find this in the Page Setup dialog.

Am I missing something?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If all your headings have the same amount of Space Before and all are
formatted as "Page break before," then you shouldn't see any discrepancy.
But if some are breaking to the next page *without* "Page break before"
formatting, then the space above them is, by default, being suppressed by
Word. If you want Word to suppress the space even after a page break, go to
Office Button | Word Options | Advanced. At the very bottom are the
Compatibility Options (expand the Layout Options); the one you want to check
is "Suppress Space Before after a hard page or column break."

Note that the "Suppress extra line spacing" options are irrelevant here, as
they address only line spacing (space between lines within the paragraph),
not Space Before.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Subligaria]

The "Suppress Space Before after a hard page or column break" option is
already checked.

Disabling it makes no difference . . .

 

[Greg Maxey]

Is this another way of saying "Peter, if you don't know the answer, it is ok
to leave the question to those that do?:

--
Greg Maxey

See my web site http://gregmaxey.mvps.org
for an eclectic collection of Word Tips.

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong
man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The
credit belongs to the man in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and
sweat and blood, who strives valiantly...who knows the great enthusiasms,
the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best
knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if
he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never
be with those cold and timid souls who have never known neither victory nor
defeat." - TR

 

[Subligaria]

That was my impression . . .

The trouble is, no one seems to know the answer.

 

[Greg Maxey]

Considering the guns that recently weighed in it could be a tough one. If
you want to send me your document, I can try to see if I can figure it out.

If you can't sort out the address then send website feedback and I connect
with you.

That was my impression . . .

The trouble is, no one seems to know the answer.

--
Greg Maxey

See my web site http://gregmaxey.mvps.org
for an eclectic collection of Word Tips.

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the
strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them
better. The credit belongs to the man in the arena, whose face is
marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly...who knows
the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a
worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high
achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while
daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and
timid souls who have never known neither victory nor defeat." - TR

 

[Subligaria]

Thanks for the offer but there are confidentiality issues with the relevant
document.

I've "solved" the problem by taking out the style-based page breaks and
using manual page breaks instead. Everything looks as it should now. The
trouble is, it bugs me a little when I can't work out why Word does something
(which happens every so often).

Thanks for your help, anyway. Looks like the big guns, after firing blanks,
have retreated to another engagement.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I'd be interested to see the problem document (or a sample of it that
demonstrates the issue).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Greg Maxey]

Well the first salvo was from a pea shooter ;-)

Thanks for the offer but there are confidentiality issues with the
relevant document.

I've "solved" the problem by taking out the style-based page breaks
and using manual page breaks instead. Everything looks as it should
now. The trouble is, it bugs me a little when I can't work out why
Word does something (which happens every so often).

Thanks for your help, anyway. Looks like the big guns, after firing
blanks, have retreated to another engagement.

--
Greg Maxey

See my web site http://gregmaxey.mvps.org
for an eclectic collection of Word Tips.

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the
strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them
better. The credit belongs to the man in the arena, whose face is
marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly...who knows
the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a
worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high
achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while
daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and
timid souls who have never known neither victory nor defeat." - TR

 

[CyberTaz]

PMFJI, and perhaps I'm too literally interpreting the OP's comment about
"successive headings", but for my own curiosity ...

There's a checkbox in Format Paragraph pertaining to "Don't add space
between paragraphs of the same style". If the Headings are actually
'successive' -- with no text between -- could this be a factor?

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Subligaria]

It was a nice suggestion but there is text (in a different style) between the
headings.

Thanks, anyway.

 

[WordUser]

I also have this problem. It seems like the Suppress Space Before hard page break option doesn't do anything. If I create a simple new document using the standard heading 1, 2... styles, Word automatically suppresses the space before from the second page onward when I use a hard page break, whether I set this compatibility feature or not.

However, in a Word document created by Author-IT, it insists on adding the space at the top of every page, whether I have a hard-page or not, and regardless of the Suppress setting option.

I can supply a bit of both documents if anyone wants to see. I'm using Word 2010 on Windows 7.

Any help would be appreciated, as manually formatting each page causes a lot of unnecessary work.