I wish to format a document with a first page consisting of Headings and some text paragraphs in single column format followed by subheadings and text in two-column format.



A) I insert a continuous section break after the last para I want in single column layout.
B) I alter the next para (i.e. the next section) to 2-column but find that column 1 is formatted correctly, but column 2 spills onto a new page. All following text is formatted correctly into two columns side by side.
C) If I insert an extra empty paragraph prior to the section break, columns 1 and 2 format correctly, but I have unwanted spacing and inelegant use of an empty paragraph that destroys formatting consistency.
D) If I now delete the blank paragraph before the section break, columns 1 and 2 stay properly formatted! The formatting markup looks identical to B) above.
QUESTION 1) What am I not understanding about section breaks?
QUESTION 2) Is this just an oddity (problem ?) of Word 2007?

Without seeing the document in question, it a little bit hard to diagnose.
Can you attach a document to a post with some representative data (delete anything sensitive)? You do this via the paperclip symbol on the 'Go Advanced' tab.

The first thing that occurs to me is that one or more of the affected paragraphs formatted with the 'keep together' and 'keep with next' attributes, or maybe it's just a display/printer driver issue.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Yes! Thank you macropod. The issue was an artifact of "keep with next."

Your response led me to understand that the problems I'm seeing are artifacts of the "keep with next" attribute that I've had as the default for all paragraphs within my styles.
After some testing, i conclude that "keep with next" works from the end of a document backward toward the front and then does NOT "keep with next" at a section break if the following text cannot fit on the next column.

If I remove the "keep with next" from the para after the section break, I get that para on Column 1 followed by other text on column 2. ???

After that non-logical result, I'll restrain myself from expectation that "keep with next" functions logically (at least by my intuitive logic) when overflows occur. I'll avoid "keep with next."

Removing "keep with next" from all paragraphs including teh section break makes the output behave logically.

I conclude that "keep with next" is not WAA* but WAI** and must be treated with care!

* WAA Working As Advertised
* WAI Working As Implemented

Thanks MACROPOD !! JB

Hi Jim,

The 'keep with next' attribute should really only be used on paragrapgs like headings that really do need to be kept the the first of the following paragraphs to which they relate.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]