Page breaks in Word 2007

[Fredrik E. Nilsen]

I have noticed that manual page breaks are treated differently in
2007. If you insert a manual page break (ctrl+enter) in Word 2003 or
earlier, you get only a page break and the paragraph is moved to the
next page. If you type something and use word count, Word tells you
that there are only one paragraph in the document.

If you insert a manual page break in Word 2007, you get both a page
break and a new paragraph. If you type something in the paragraph and
use word count, Word tells you that there are two paragraphs in the
document.

If you convert at Word 2003 document to docx, Word 2007 will change
any manual page break to a page break plus a paragraph. This will
result in major trouble when mass converting documents.

Has anyone got any information about this?

 

[Fredrik E. Nilsen]

If you convert at Word 2003 document to docx, Word 2007 will change
any manual page break to a page break plus a paragraph. This will
result in major trouble when mass converting documents.

A small correction: This turned out to be incorrect.

 

[Fredrik E. Nilsen]

On Mon, 24 Mar 2008 13:20:39 +0100, Fredrik E. Nilsen

Some more testing reveals this:

In Word 2003, create a blank document. Press Ctrl+Enter once to insert
a manual page break. Show all hidden formatting marks. On page one
there will be a manual page break and on page two a paragraph mark.
Save the document, open it in Word 2007 and convert it. The result
will look exactly the same as in Word 2003.

In Word 2007, create a blank document. Press Ctrl+Enter once to insert
a manual page break. Show all hidden formatting marks. On page one
there will be a manual page break and a paragraph mark and on page two
a paragraph mark.

This is not consistant with the behaviour you get when you convert
from doc.

In Word 2003, create a blank document. Press Ctrl+Enter once to insert
a manual page break. Press Enter once to insert a new paragraph. Show
all hidden formatting marks. On page one there will be a manual page
break and on page two there will be two paragraph marks.

Save the document, close it and re-open it in Word 2007. Show all
hidden formatting marks. On page one there will be a manual page break
and on page two there will be two paragraph marks, the same as in
2003. Convert the document. Now you will have a manual page break and
a paragraph mark on page 1and a paragraph mark on page 2.

Can someone please explain this to me?

 

[Fredrik E. Nilsen]

Can someone please explain this to me?

Well, I found the solution for a single document: Click the Office
button -> Word Options -> Advanced -> Layout Options -> Split apart
page break and paragraph mark.

I would still appreciate more information about this and how to avoid
trouble when converting documents. There is no way all users can be
expected to fix this on their own.

 

[Beth Melton]

Instead of using the Convert command, try using Save As and change the File
Format to Word 2007. Then make sure the option, "Maintain Compatibility with
Word 97-2003" is selected. This option will keep the Word 2003 Compatibility
(Layout) options instead of switching them to Word 2007.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Melton

What is a Microsoft MVP? http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/gp/mvpfaqs

 

[Fredrik E. Nilsen]

Instead of using the Convert command, try using Save As and change the File
Format to Word 2007. Then make sure the option, "Maintain Compatibility with
Word 97-2003" is selected. This option will keep the Word 2003 Compatibility
(Layout) options instead of switching them to Word 2007.

Ok, thanks, thats one step easier but I expect a lot of users will use
the Convert-command because thats what they (think they) want to do.

One thing I noticed: I you click the Office-button -> Word Options ->
Advanced and select Lay out this document as if created in Microsoft
Office 2003, the "Split apart page break and paragraph mark" will not
be checked. If you select Office 2002 or earlier it will be checked.
As far as I have seen, 2003 treats this the same way as 2002 and
earlier versions so this seems like a bug to me.