Forgive me if I don't know all the correct terminology but I'll do my best. I've used MS Word for years, but that doesn't mean I know a lot about it.

I am trying to format a document for publication. When everything is right, I'll generate a .pdf to upload.

I've set my page size, margins and page numbers. I haven't used the automatic table of contents because it's more trouble than it's worth but that's a different issue. I just mentioned this in case a TOC could be a problem.

Page 5 is the first line of actual text after all the intro pages and TOC. Word drops the last two lines of text on page 5 and puts it on the next page even thought there is room for them. This unnecessarily splits a four-line paragraph in the middle. If I add lines above the first page to start the text on page 6, the two lines are properly included on the page and everything is good except then my text starts on an even page. Throughout the rest of the document, I don't see anywhere this happens again.

It's like the page margins on page 5 are two lines shorter but that isn't the case. The side ruler shows all pages the same.

When I un-hide the formatting symbols, there isn't anything on that page to indicate a problem.

I don't want two blank pages before the text starts. What is the correction for this? Many thanks for your help.

Without knowing the parameters you have set for your document, it would be difficult to pinpoint your problem. However, this issue is a normal document form/format procedure in that a paragraph of that length must have at least two lines of text to be included on a page with the remaining text on the following page. In other words, normal format is to have at least 2 lines of text on a single page (not 3 lines on one page and a single line on the following page...even if there is room for it to fit).

To adjust, I would first revisit your formatting styles and modify them to fit your needs. There are plenty of online links that can assist you. Here are a couple to get you started:

http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/styl...sonstyles.html

http://gregmaxey.com/word_tips.htm

I may not have worded that statement correctly but, what I was meaning was that in normal writing procedures there is always at least two lines of text from any paragraph at the end of one page and the beginning of the next page.