Every time I make a change in MS Word it messes up my line spacing. I have to do a lot of work in this particular document adjusting line spacing in individual lines/paragraphs to make things fit on each page properly. Then as soon as I make some change that shouldn't affect the spacing in the text the whole thing gets messed up and I have to go back through the whole d___ document and reset everything! This last time, all I did was change the page numbering in the header. (Click in header à Page number à Format Page Numbers.) After doing so the line spacing was messed up again. I don't understand how changing my page numbering would change the spacing in the text of the document. Does anyone have any idea what might be going on here?

Could you save a few pages demonstrating the problem on OneDrive or Dropbox and post a view link here.
Take out any proprietary or confidential information.
Ideally one sample before a change to the page numbering and one after.

• Word Doesn't Know What a Page Is
• Improving the Bottom Line by Suzanne Barnhill, MVP
• Moving/Reorganizing Pages in Microsoft Word

Well, you're getting a little beyond my scope of reference. I have never posted things on OneDrive or Dropbox. I have, however, put a few pages up at my website: wardsbooks.com/sample-problem.docx. If you really want it on OneDrive or Dropbox you can me a pointer on how to do that.


Interestingly, the first page of songs is okay in the document that I posted (at least on my computer) -- the line "Original Words: Will L. Thompson, 1880 " is at the bottom of the page where it belongs. It is shoved to the next page in my actual document. You can, however, still see the problem. All of the pages should start with a song title at the top, but some of the pages have the last lines of the previous page shoved down so that they push the title down and take its place.

You need to learn about Styles in Word among other things if you are going to use Word.


I will be posting back your page using them well but it will take some time and I am caring for my grandsons right now.



I strongly recommend that you go through the following series of short tutorials. You will save time and frustration. You will definitely be glad you did.
Basic Concepts of Microsoft Word - from Shauna Kelly


Take a look, also, in particular, at Improving the Bottom Line by Suzanne Barnhill, MVP and Importance of Styles in Word (the introductory part).

Here is a modified version of what you posted (temporary link).
Dropbox - deleteme sample-problem.docx - Simplify your life

I do not know that it is what you want but it should be far easier to edit. It is designed to keep every song on a single page if possible. Some are short enough to fit two-to-a-page.

A key is the Attribute custom style.

To see some of the formatting difference Ctrl+Shift+8 (Ctrrl+*).
Margins and Indents in Word

Well, I'm just getting more confused so far. I'm not sure what the difference is that makes the sample you posted easier to edit or designed to keep every song on a single page. (I am, of course, generally putting more than one song on a page.) The Ctrl+Sifft+8 function is what I would have called "reveal codes". I should have thought to use that already, but I don't immediately see anything that answers my problem. I still don't see why changing the page numbering would affect those things. I will, however, take a look at the tutorials that you suggested. Perhaps they will help.

I have taken a look at the tutorials. Pretty basic for the most part, but I read the ones about styles. I use styles to organize things and to produce a table of contents. The titles for each section of the book (eg, Part 1: Songs for Everyone) are Heading 1 level. The title for the individual songs are Heading 2 level. Once again, I don't see what all this has to do with why the text should change or fit differently on the page when I change my page numbering.

I have a hypothesis:


When I changed the page numbering, that included adding page numbers in roman numerals to the footer in the preliminary pages of the book (Introduction, Table of Contents, etc.). I am wondering if by inserting the number the program resized the footer slightly throughout the document so that it left less room on the pages for text. Do you think this might be what happened?

Take a look, with "reveal codes" on, when you insert a page number. You may be adding a paragraph in the footer, increasing its size.


Look again at the sample I revised. Each verse is a single paragraph, with the formatting set to keep lines together and keep with next. There are no empty paragraphs.


Did you go through all the tutorials in the basic conceps series?

Reveal codes does show a paragraph symbol after the footer line. Nothing I put there intentionally, but yes, it's there.


I am not able to do so with your sample. When I download it, it downloads as an html page, not as a .docx. (Once again, I am not familiar with the dropbox method.)


I skimmed through all the tutorials, and read anything that I wasn't familiar with. Like I said, it was mostly pretty basic. I wasn't sure what you meant by "styles", but when I read it I realized those are the things I have already been using.


I have gone through and readjusted the entire document. I don't think I will need to make any further changes to mess anything up again. Perhaps an occasional typo, but that is all.


Thanks so much for your help. I appreciate it.

When you end up with additional paragraph mark in the footer, go to that and delete it.

It is a known issue in Word that pasting content into a header or footer will often add a superfluous paragraph mark (¶). As Charles wrote, you will have to delete that paragraph mark manually.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

I didn't do any pasting in the header or footer, but I will keep the paragraph mark in mind from now on.

Using the Insert > Page Number commands will also add excessive paragraph marks. You can check this for yourself if you display nonprinting marks.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional