Word forum,
Very new to Word and I have a basic question.
I have created a document with several pages but when I change the zoom factor the text doesn't stay on the original pages. How do I make the pages fixed?

jerryd

Changing the window zoom doesn't change the flow of text on the page (eg. if you printed it).

It will change the flow of text on your VIEW if you are viewing the document in Read Mode, Web Layout or Draft Layout views. If this is the case, change your view to Page Layout view and try zooming that instead.

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Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia

Andrew,
Thanks for the reply.
I tried changing the zoom in the page layout menu but I got the same problem.

I document is 106 pages with the text set at 12pt, the zoom set at 130% and page numbers in the header. Viewing it with these settings has each page as a stand alone. When I change the zoom the text on some pages will creep up to the previous page? I don't ever print this document. Is there a way I can keep the pages unique even if I change the zoom factor?

jerryd

Did you try viewing in Print View?
Zoom does not change pagination.

Could you upload a couple of screen shots for illustration?

If you mean that you see multiple pages side by side, depending on the zoom ratio, note that this is quite common in Word, and it only affects the display.

If text is actually moving around on the page, something else is going on.

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Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Stefan,
Thanks for the reply.

Sorry I haven't gotten back to you sooner.

I just use single pages not side by side.

What I mean by fixed pages is my document contains many pages but if I remove some text from a page the text on the next page moves up to become part of the page I removed the text from.

I would like to be able to mark the text at the top of a every page to always have it start at the top of a page.

Any way to do this?

jerryd

That is how Word is supposed to work.
If you delete content from the bottom of a page and don't want what follows to move up, you can replace the deleted content with a manual page break.

If you delete content from the middle or top of a page and don't want what follows to move up, you can replace the deleted content with an empty textbox, frame or table cell of the same size.

If you want to force certain content to always be preceded by a page break, you can apply the 'page break before' paragraph attribute to it.

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Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Options, in descending order:

1. If the paragraph at the start of a page is a heading, or a unique style, modify the paragraph settings of the style to set a page break before.
2. Right click the paragraph at the top of the page and select Paragraph from the context menu. On the Line and Page Breaks tab set page break before.
3. Insert a page break before the paragraph that needs to be at the top of a page.

Attached Images

	Paragraph context menu.png (12.2 KB, 11 views)
	Paragraph break settings.png (21.8 KB, 11 views)

Those all only work if the deleted content is at the bottom of a page...

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Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Use a style that has the paragraph formatting of "Page Break Before."
I will usually set this as the setting for the Heading 1 style. Apply that style to the paragraph/heading you want to begin a new page.

• Importance of Styles in Word
• Why Use Word's Built-In Heading Styles? by Shauna Kelly
• Word Doesn't Know What a Page Is by Daiya Mitchell, MVP
• For more: Basic Concepts of Microsoft Word - from Shauna Kelly

That's all very well, but what if pages start with a variety of Styles - and/or those Styles are used within the page ranges as well?

And this still doesn't address what happens when content is deleted from anywhere other than the bottom of a page...

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Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

As other contributors have pointed out, it is normal for text in Word to reflow when you remove content. A word processor won't let you add and remove pages in the way that a desktop publishing program does.

In the particular situation you are describing, I suspect that adding manual page breaks will be the only practical solution.

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Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional