I've created a Word template for an organization's branding initiative with very specific formatting, margins, paragraph spacing, etc.

There is a weird issue, however, with how Word is choosing to break lines.
The left-hand margin is 5/8". The right-hand margin is 2 5/8" to allow for stationery design elements on the right side. Word seems to be randomly breaking lines very early on some lines and not on others. It's almost as if certain groups of words are grouped together and will break until they can all fit on one line together. (I.e., if I move the right margin out, the lines remain broken at the same place until there is enough room for about three or four of the words from the line below to fit on the line above).

There are no hard line breaks in the document. There is nothing set in the Paragraph or Font options that would be causing this. (I have a 1/8" indent on the first line of a new paragraph set, and some vertical paragraph spacing set, and that's it).

Here's a link to a screenshot example:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2890872/fls/ms-word-wrap.jpg

See how early the first, second, fourth, etc lines break compared to where the margin is set? I have invisible characters turned on to show that the only line breaks are at the end of the paragraphs.

If you are sure there are no paragraph marks (¶) or line breaks ("curved" arrows) where there shouldn't be such nonprinting marks, have you considered looking for a right indent? Another possibility is a border-less text box hiding next to the right margin.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Thanks, for the response, Stefan. Positive that there are no line breaks, soft or hard (see the screenshot I linked to—it shows invisible characters, and the only line breaks are at the end of the paragraphs). I've search every possible place I know of for any set right indents, and don't believe that's it either.

It's so strange, because it's very inconsistent—some lines break much earlier than others. It really does seem like Word is treating random groups of words as a single word (e.g. in the screenshot, it must not break "Cum sociis natoque" into separate lines, so it move them *all* down to the next line.

Actually, I had problems seeing all of the nonprinting marks on the screenshot (I need to purchase a laptop with a bigger screen apparently). Strictly speaking, though, what terminates a paragraph in Word is called a paragraph mark, represented by a pilcrow (¶).

Have you looked for text boxes or shapes (without border lines)? If you display text boundaries, you will be able to tell this more easily.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Oh, the text boundaries things was a good tip! It looks like each line of text has its own boundary around it (and each is a different width). As opposed to a normal document where the text all flows within one boundary. I don't see anything that indicates any rogue text boxes or shapes, but that text boundary things is a definite issue.

What would be causing that? I don't know a thing about how text boundaries are created or controlled. (I mostly work in InDesign, not Word).

I think the most obvious answer is to start from scratch, but it took me forever to get the document set up do be designed differently on pages after page 1 (without including any more than one page in the template), so I'd really rather resolve it from within the existing doc.

ETA: Here's a screenshot of how the text boundaries look:

Is there a selection pane available in MacWord? In that case, you should use it to see if there is an object hiding somewhere on the page and affecting how the text paragraphs wrap.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

No selection page (that I'm aware of), but generally if there is a selectable object, the cursor will change from an arrow or blinking text cursor to the four-pointed arrow that indicate that something is selectable or draggable. With this text, it behaves just like standard page text — I can't select it as an object —*I can only select it by highlighting.

Well, some objects may be behind text, or anchored to a header, which means they won't be selectable directly. Is there a Select Object tool in MacWord (a button you can click and then drag to select items that are, for example, behind text)?

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

I have been driven crazy by a similar problem which I fixed by changing the Column size. For some reason it was fixed at less than the working area of the page.
The column size can be accessed from ---Layout >> Columns >> More Columns...