Stopping word split lines over pages

[sam.o]

Hi All,

I wonder whether you knowledgeable folk can help me... I'm really stuck
with this one and it's driving me slightly crazy.

I'm re-typing/ editing a theatre script in word. It's formatted so that
the Character's name who is speaking is on one line and then directly
below is there dialogue. There is then 2 line breaks before the next
section of dialogue... E.g:

SAM
Hello There how are you?

JOHN
I'm fine thanks... How was your day?

SAM
Good... (etc. etc.)

What I want to stop work from doing is splitting the Character's name
and the line or a series of lines over a page...

At the moment I'm getting a lot of this:

SAM
Hi There how are you?

JOHN
--NEW PAGE---
I'm fine thanks... How was your day?


And also some of this:

SAM
Hello there - line one blah blah
--NEW PAGE--
line continues

JOHN
etc. etc.

---

Does any one know of any way to get Word to stop doing this? The
document is over 300 pages long and it's taking me a very long time to
go through and manually sort out these page breaks.

Thank You,

Sam

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

Well, assuming you're working with paper (rather than an online script),
each page has a finite length. So, the page is going to have to break
somewhere. To a certain extent, you might be able to handle some of it using
the Keep with Next paragraph setting.

However... if I were doing this, I probably use a table (with borders turned
off), where the character's name and line appear within the same row, and
with "Allow row to break across pages" turned OFF. This would guarantee that
any given character's line would appear on the same page as the character's
name. Of course, if you're like Shakespeare and have some long soliloquies,
it might not be possible all the time.

To convert an existing 300+ page script--after making a backup copy--I would
use an otherwise-unused character as the row separator (using find/replace
to insert before each character's name), then convert the text to a
one-column table with one row for each character's sequential set of lines.


Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word 2007 Bible
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Well, the first thing I would do is convert every instance of two line
breaks to a paragraph break. That will get each character's name and lines
into a single paragraph, which can be formatted as "Keep lines together" and
with 12 points Spacing After. Actually, if I were doing this from scratch,
I'd define one style (formatted as "Keep with next") for the character's
name and one for the lines.

To replace the line breaks with a paragraph break, search for ^l^l and
replace with ^p.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Pamelia Caswell via OfficeKB.com]

Use a style for the speaker name and include keep with next as one of its
settings. Or format each speaker name manually.

Pam

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

That assumes (as other respondents have done) that by "line breaks" the OP
actually meant paragraph breaks, which I suspect is correct (unless the
material was pasted from the Web). I was taking him literally. If he ever
manages to find his way back, perhaps we'll learn more.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Pamelia Caswell via OfficeKB.com]

True. I saw that he used the term "line break" but did not take him
literally. Your post wasn't there when I posted. Had it been I wouldn't
have.

Pam

That assumes (as other respondents have done) that by "line breaks" the OP
actually meant paragraph breaks, which I suspect is correct (unless the
material was pasted from the Web). I was taking him literally. If he ever
manages to find his way back, perhaps we'll learn more.

Use a style for the speaker name and include keep with next as one of its
settings. Or format each speaker name manually.

[quoted text clipped - 50 lines]

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Your post wasn't there when I posted. Had it been I wouldn't

have.

There have been problems propagating NNTP posts to the MS Web site, which
we're told have been "fixed" now (till next time).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

True. I saw that he used the term "line break" but did not take him
literally. Your post wasn't there when I posted. Had it been I wouldn't
have.

Pam

That assumes (as other respondents have done) that by "line breaks" the OP
actually meant paragraph breaks, which I suspect is correct (unless the
material was pasted from the Web). I was taking him literally. If he ever
manages to find his way back, perhaps we'll learn more.

Use a style for the speaker name and include keep with next as one of
its
settings. Or format each speaker name manually.

[quoted text clipped - 50 lines]

Sam

 

[sam.o]

Hi All,

And thanks for your help...

By "two line breaks" I meant just hitting return twice... Does tha
make any sense? I'm not sure i understand the difference between line
paragraph breaks? Could anyone explain?

Also i wonder if someone could explain the differences in the "kee
with next" and "keep paragraph" together settings for me...

Defining a "style" as the character name and a "style" for the line
seems to be the way forward... Does anyone know therefore if I can se
a style to include four tabs before the text? For example I want t
format all the character's names to be tabbed in four times? And als
is it possible to use FIND/ REPLACE to set a style to text?

Off to have a big play with the document now (after having saved
backup copy of course) to try all of your advice...

Many thanks for your help.

Sam

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Okay, starting at the beginning: A line break is entered with Shift+Enter.
It creates a line break without creating a new paragraph. It's irrelevant to
the argument now since apparently you were talking about paragraph breaks
(Enter).

You don't want to press Enter twice to get space between paragraphs because
that creates an empty paragraph, which just complicates formatting (for
example, it can wind up at the top of a page, making unnecessary space
there). Instead, you want to add some Spacing Before or After to one of your
styles. In your case, it would make the most sense to add Spacing Before to
the style for the character's name. An easy way to add 12 points Spacing
Before to a paragraph is to press Ctrl+0.

"Keep with next" keeps a paragraph (or some part of it) with the following
paragraph. This doesn't guarantee that the entire paragraph will stick with
the following one: if the first paragraph is four lines or longer, then it
can be split with as few as two lines on either page, but the last two
lines (or more) will stay with the following paragraph. This is the setting
you want for the character's name, so that that (single-line) paragraph will
stay with the lines that follow.

"Keep lines together" keeps the lines of a given paragraph together. This is
the setting you want for your character's lines. Both KWN and KLT are on the
Line and Page Breaks tab of the Paragraph dialog.

Yes, you can create a style that includes four tabs, but not as such. You
create a first-line indent (or a left indent, which will amount to the same
thing since the character's name is a single line) that is the equivalent of
four tabs (if you're talking about the default half-inch tab, then this
would be a 2" indent).

You could probably use Replace to apply the character name style. The
simplest approach would be to apply the style for the lines to the entire
document, then apply the character name style just to the character names.
You'll need to do these one by one. Type one of the names in the "Find what"
box, leave the "Replace with" box blank, and, with the insertion point in
the "Replace with" box, use Format | Style to select the style, then Replace
All.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org