Inconsistent paragraph spacing after line/section breaks -- Word 2

[Little Miss Sunshine]

The Heading 1 style has paragraph spacing set to 12 pt before. I do not want
to set the "Page break before" option in the style and instead of have
several manual page breaks and section breaks in the document.

After some breaks, the Heading 1 style properly displays/prints with the 12
pt before. However after other breaks, the style does NOT properly
display/print with the 12 pt before, it's 0 before (even though if you look
at the paragraph formatting for the text, it shows 12 pt). It seems that Word
figures since the text is at the top of the page, the before spacing isn't
needed. But since it's not doing this consistently, the end result is that
the position of Heading 1 is inconsistent across the pages.

Please advise how can I make this be consistent when the style immediately
follows a break - I need for it to either always be 0 pt before or always be
what is set in the style (here, it's 12 pt).

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Word suppresses Space Before at the top of a page except after a manual page
break. You can opt to suppress it after a manual break as well.

 

[Little Miss Sunshine]

Thank you for the response. Can you direct me on how to control the
"suppression"? Searching the help for "supress space before" does not return
any relevant results.

I also wanted to note the lack of consistency here. I see the following in
one document:
- not suppressed - Section break
- not suppressed - Section break
- suppressed - Page break
- not supressed - Page break
- not supressed - Page break
- suppressed - Page break

The suppression before the manual page break is not consistent. The lack of
suppression before the section break is consistent.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The Compatibility Option that governs this (Tools | Options | Compatibility)
is "Suppress Space Before after a hard page or column break." This will make
headings following manual page breaks consistent with headings following
automatic ("soft") page breaks. There is no comparable setting for section
breaks. There, if you don't want Space Before, you will have to remove it
manually from the given paragraph.

If you are seeing headings (or other paragraphs) following manual page
breaks that do not have Space Before, it may be that it has been manually
removed from those specific paragraphs.