random header appearances

[bob.irving]

my document keeps generating heading lines (level 2) even though there
is no text associated with them, thusly

5.5 Heading no 5
<picture or table>
5.6
<nothing>
5.7 Heading no 6
<rest of doc>
Sometimes I get
5.5 Heading no 5

5.6 <blank lines which seem to belong to the number>

Heading no 6
<rest of doc>
I can sometimes straighten it out by inserting actual blank lines and
hard returns but when I re-open the doc, the additional heading
reappears.

This is on XP Prof, Word 2003.
Any ideas, apart from throwing the laptop out of the window.....
Bob Irving

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

It sounds as if you have numbered headings and are applying the
corresponding heading style to empty paragraphs. This will happen naturally
if you press Enter at the beginning of a heading.

 

[bob.irving]

Not conscious that I've done this - the last close and open generated
two of the little ****'s without input from me!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Can you send me a sample document? If your document contains *any* empty
paragraphs, it could be that Document Map is promoting them to heading
level; see http://daiya.mvps.org/docmap.htm