#1
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Inexplicable spaces in "Print Layout" View
When in "Print Layout" view, I have inexplicable spaces in several passages throughout my document that cannot be deleted. When "Show all nonprinting characters" is selected, the enormous blank space does not have paragraph markings. When I try to delete the space, Word acts as if the blank space is not there. This has happened several times in several different documents
When in "Draft Mode," the spaces are absent. I am not sure what the issue is or how to address it. It should be noted that the entirety of the text was copied and pasted into Word from a different word processor - not sure if this might be causing an issue. Any help is greatly appreciated. EDIT: First picture shows the document in Print Layout view with the big empty space and no paragraph markings. The second picture shows the same passage in Draft Mode, with no spaces. |
#2
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Look for "Keep with next" and/or "Page break before" formatting in the paragraphs that have moved to the next page. These options are in the Paragraph dialog box.
"Page break before" will force a paragraph to the next page. "Keep with next" means that the paragraph in question is kept on the same page as the following paragraph, and if multiple pages in a succession have that setting enabled, you may get unexpected page breaks.
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Stefan Blom Microsoft Word MVP Microsoft 365 apps for business Windows 11 Professional |
#3
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The plot thickens...I opened up the document to check these options (they were both off), and for some reason, the large blank spaces were in DIFFERENT PLACES in the document than they were before. The blank spaces only showed up in Print Layout mode, not in Draft Mode, as before.
The document seems to have a mind of its own. Should I try to create a new Word document and copy and paste the text into it? The original text was done in Libre Office. I copied and pasted the text from an .odt file into a blank word document. Is there a better way to do this? Picture included to show the spaces on different pages. |
#4
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Did you have any luck with the paragraph formatting options I mentioned?
You can try copying document content into a new, blank document. Remember to omit the final paragraph mark (¶) when copying. (To show/hide paragraph marks as well as other nonprinting marks, click the ¶ button on the Home tab.) Note that Draft view does not display page breaks, which explains why everything looks normal there.
__________________
Stefan Blom Microsoft Word MVP Microsoft 365 apps for business Windows 11 Professional |
#5
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Are these the options you're talking about? When I turn off "Keep with next," the paragraph shifts a little bit, but the large empty space is still there. See pictures for reference.
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#6
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The options mentioned by Stefan are paragraph formatting options, not options for the entire document. They would be in the paragraph that starts the new page. You need to move your insertion point to that paragraph. It looks like the last paragraph of the first page has keep with next checked and the second paragraph may have keep lines together checked. That would give you this appearance. You could post a sample of your document. How to attach a screenshot or file in this forum.
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#7
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Quote:
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#8
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Your insertion point (cursor) must be in the particular paragraph. This is a setting for each paragraph, not for the entire document.
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#9
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Quote:
Just out of curiosity, I highlighted the entire document, went into that same dialog box, and turned off those two options again, and I think this might have solved the issue. The first image is before I turned the options off and the second image is after. Does this seem correct? Thanks again. |
#10
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By selecting all of your text (not highlighting, that is something different) and changing the options, you changed them for all of you text. A quick way to select all text in the body of a document is Ctrl+A.
When non-printing characters are displayed, a little black square will appear in the left margin of paragraphs where either of these options have been checked. Looking at your document, it appears they still are applied in your footers. This leads me to suspect that they are a part of your normal style. If that is the case, it is likely that they will be checked in at least some future text. (They didn't get changed in the footers because the footers are not part of the body of the document; they were not selected earlier.) |
#11
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Are these two options kept on by default? (Keep With Next/Page Break Before) Thanks again for your help. |
#12
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It seems as if "Keep with next" and/or "Page break before" have been added to the Normal style definition. In the Modify Style dialog box for that style, clear the options if they are selected. (For more on editing styles, see https://support.office.com/en-us/art...4-07e23ad4f69a.)
__________________
Stefan Blom Microsoft Word MVP Microsoft 365 apps for business Windows 11 Professional |
#13
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I had the same problem as the OP, so I went through my entire document carefully following the instructions given above. I made all the necessary corrections and then went to review the print format only to find additional spaces AND now numbered paragraphs that weren't there before. I went through the document again line by line and found no formatting issues that were not in sync with the rest of the document. This is literally day 3 of trying to fix these formatting issues, even going so far as to recreate the document from scratch (without copy/paste). Although the instructions given above were helpful to an extent, it has not helped in that Word seems to be making uncommanded changes to my document. I am beyond frustrated at this point.
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#14
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Quote:
__________________
Stefan Blom Microsoft Word MVP Microsoft 365 apps for business Windows 11 Professional |
#15
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I have attached sample pages that showing the discrepancies.
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