Justify

[JRD]

Why when I use justify to format a paragraph does word put long spaces
between the words if a short sentence is on the last line of a page. If the
same short sentence is elsewhere on the page then word does not do this.

John

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Word does not justify the last line of a paragraph. That means that either:

1. The last line it's justifying is not the last line of a paragraph. This
can happen if the line ends with a line break instead of a paragraph break.
Displaying nonprinting characters (see
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/NonPrintChars.htm) will make it easy to
distinguish.

2. Instead of justifying the paragraph, you've "distributed" it, by
accidentally pressing Ctrl+Shift+J instead of Ctrl+J.

Note that Word doesn't always justify a line ending in a line break, either.
You can opt not to (by checking the appropriate option on the Compatibility
tab of Tools | Options) or you can insert a tab character before the line
break.