Unwanted extra space at the bottom of a page in Word

[Karen M.]

At the bottom of the first page of my document, Word has inserted an extra
space. When I hit return it goes down once, as it should, but then it skips a
line again, leaving me with a lot of extra unwanted space at the bottom of my
first page. There is nothing wrong with the alignment is page layout (set to
"top," not justify.) There are no manual page breaks, no section breaks, and
"page break before" is not checked. I have tried cutting then repasting the
text. I've tried backspacing then hitting return again for the paragraph.
I've tried to "find" any weird formatting in the document. Nothing works!
There is extra space at the bottom of the page (between what should be the
last two paragraphs), no matter what I do. I think it has something to do
with paragraph creation. The little grid which is supposed to show how text
is justified shows up when I move the cursor to that extra white space. Can
any brilliant expert help me? Much appreciation!

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

Just checking here, because I don't know what grid you mean. Could the extra
space be from Before or After formatting, in Format - Paragraph - Spacing
tab, under Spacing?

If this isn't the issue, if you'd care to email me a copy of the document, I
can take a look. Send to problem(at)thetysons.org, replacing (a) with the @
sign.

 

[Tony Jollans]

This sounds like Widow/Orphan control (or related paragraph formatting) to
me.

If the paragraph won't fit on the page without leaving a single "widow" or
"orphan" line on one page or other, the whole paragraph will be moved to the
second page. Try switching it off under Format > Paragraph > Line and Page
Breaks (tab) > Pagination (section). Uncheck both "Widow/Orphan Control" and
"Keep Lines Together" and see if that helps.

Enjoy,
Tony

 

[Karen M.]

Thank you for responding! I feel silly, but what it was was that
"widow/orphan" was on. It took me hours to figure it out (with a grant
application fast approaching). I don't like Word. I'm a writer and I really
miss Wordperfect (the older Wordperfect, actually, where you could "reveal
codes" and see everything and pick for yourself.) I find Word assumes I want
it to do all kinds of automatic formatting for me which I'd rather do for
myself. And then it's almost impossible to see what's there. The little
question marky thingy is useless. It's like Word is catering to an illiterate
audience. You start writing a poem and it comes on and says "I see you're
writing a letter." Etc. Etc. I'd rather it spent less time on doing for me
what I can do for myself, and more on just making the formatting and other
"behind the scenes" things clear and accessible. Thanks for listening! And
thanks for responding to my post.

 

[Karen M.]

p.s. to my earlier response... I of course also spent hours using the "help"
feature, with it offering no answer to "extra space bottom of page" worded
dozens of ways. What they put in the help menu and what they leave out
(including something basic like adding "widow/orphan" as something that
leaves space at the page bottom) seems completely random to me. Thanks for
listeing again!!

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

I'm glad you found the answer. I have the Office Assistant turned off... it
would drive me nuts. There are some really good send-ups of Clippy floating
about on the Internet, though. If nothing else, it's provided a great source
of comedy.

That said... much of what you don't like can be turned off. When the Office
Assistant appears, right-click the little bugger and choose Options; remove
the check next to Use the Office Assistant.

Additional automation can be tamed by choosing Tools - AutoCorrect Options -
AutoFormat as you type.

If you see something you don't want and can't figure out out to get rid
of... just ask.

Cheers,

 

[Karen M.]

That was it, all right. Thanks!!

This sounds like Widow/Orphan control (or related paragraph formatting) to
me.

If the paragraph won't fit on the page without leaving a single "widow" or
"orphan" line on one page or other, the whole paragraph will be moved to the
second page. Try switching it off under Format > Paragraph > Line and Page
Breaks (tab) > Pagination (section). Uncheck both "Widow/Orphan Control" and
"Keep Lines Together" and see if that helps.

Enjoy,
Tony

 

[Karen M.]

Thanks very much! I feel better already...

I'm glad you found the answer. I have the Office Assistant turned off... it
would drive me nuts. There are some really good send-ups of Clippy floating
about on the Internet, though. If nothing else, it's provided a great source
of comedy.

That said... much of what you don't like can be turned off. When the Office
Assistant appears, right-click the little bugger and choose Options; remove
the check next to Use the Office Assistant.

Additional automation can be tamed by choosing Tools - AutoCorrect Options -
AutoFormat as you type.

If you see something you don't want and can't figure out out to get rid
of... just ask.

Cheers,

 

[Rianna]

That was it, all right. Thanks!!