Word 2007 - Page Break Before

[Kim]

My company has just switched over to Office 2007. One issue that came to
light this morning is that if a document has Page Break Before codes to force
new pages, the document appears fine if you've got Show/Hide turned on. If
Show/Hide is turned off, then the Page Break Before codes seem to disappear
and the pages appear overlapped.

Specifically, my document has pages 2, 3 and 4 set with Page Break Before
codes and all four pages show (overlapped) on page 1 when I turn off
Show/Hide.

Is there a setting that needs to be turned on to make the document appear
correct regardless whether Show/Hide is on or off?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Are you in Print Layout view? Do you have "white space" hidden?

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

 

[Kim]

Yes, I'm in Print Layout and white space is not hidden.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

What do you mean by "Page Break Before codes"? "Page break before" is a
setting applied to paragraphs and styles. It does not produce a line labeled
"Page Break" as a manual page break does; instead you see just the ordinary
dotted line, and these are displayed (in Draft view) only when nonprinting
characters are displayed. They're never shown in Print Layout view because
instead you see the header, footer, and grey space between pages.

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

 

[Kim]

Thanks, Suzanne. Yes, I mean Page Break Before NOT a manual page break.
When I say that the Page Break Before codes disappear, I mean the black dot
to the left that represents a setting applied to the paragraph/style ceases
to function.

Any help would be great.

Kim.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The black bullet is toggled by Show/Hide in previous versions as well. I
don't know why you wouldn't see separate pages, however, if you are in Print
Layout view. The behavior in Draft view, however, is somewhat changed from
Normal view in earlier versions in that the dotted line for a page break is
shown in Draft view for Word 2007-format documents (whether nonprinting
characters are displayed or not) but is NOT shown (regardless of Show/Hide
status) in Word 97-2003 documents.

At least that's what I'm seeing in my current version of Word 2007; I'm
wondering if this has been changed by an update, as I thought I remembered
something different before. In fact, a thread from March 2007 states:

"This happens for me as well. In draft mode in native 07 docs, the page
breaks are invisible (i.e., no dotted line all the way across with
"Page Break" in the middle). As noted, it does not affect documents in
Compatiblity Mode; they display as expected. Another funny aspect of
this behavior is that even with Show/Hide turned on, the page break
displays the dotted-line-plus-"Page Break", but only a stunted
version: it only goes 2" across the page (according to the horizontal
ruler), instead of all the way across. I've hunted all over for a
solution to no avail."

This seems to be a reference to manual page breaks, however, not "soft"
ones inserted by Word either because a page is filled or in response to a
"Page break before" setting.

In another thread from February 2008 "How do I get page breaks to show in
draft view," Herb Tyson writes:

"In draft view, page breaks are controlled by the display of Spaces (between
words) [Office - Word Options - Display - Spaces]. So, the minimum display
you can have and still display page breaks is only spaces checked. That's
less cluttered than everything, but might be more than you want. "

There are other similar threads, but all related to Draft view, and you
indicate you are in Print Layout view, in which you should be seeing the
"white space between pages" rather than a dotted line.

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