Word - Across Page Breaks

[Bill Johnson]

The last paragraph on one page seems to be tied to the First paragraph on the
next page.

I have a Paragraph Stype Heading1 to begin a new page. When I look at the
table of contents, I show not only an entry for the Heading1 paragraph on the
the page where I want it, but the same entry on the preceeding page.

I checked, and the last paragraph is also a Heading1 Paragraph. (The
paragraph is a blank carriage return). When I change that empty paragraph
style to Normal, it also changes the first paragraph on the following page to
Normal too. The only way I've been able to start the new page with my
Heading1 style is to begin the page with a Normal style paragraph (empty)
followed by my Heading1 paragraph. This also makes the Table of Contents
look correct.

But why can't I just do it the way that makes sense? I insert a page break
and begin with a Heading1 (or Heading2 or Heading3) paragraph style without
affecting the previous page?

Stumpped here.

Thanks

 

[DeanH]

It sounds as though you are doing everything correctly, but sometime Word
likes to link what looks like Paragraph Marks. These need to be deleted from
between the text you do want and then a new "clean" paragraph mark inserted.

Try the following, change the offending paragraphs and Heading to Normal
style with no manual formatting applied (ie Ctrl+Spacebar to remove any
manual formatting).
Delete the paragraph marks between the last text and the Heading completely,
so that the Heading is now in the same paragraph as the preceding text. Now
reinsert the paragraph break (ie the Return button) to separate the Heading
from the text, only one retrun is required. Now apply the Heading 1 style to
the Heading

I come across these non-paragraph marks frequently from my many contributors
and I think they can be inadvertantly created by copy-pasting from multiple
sources.
Hope this helps
DeanH

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

A manual page break will always inherit the formatting of the following
paragraph. To avoid this problem, instead format the heading as "Page break
before" (Format | Paragraph | Line and Page Breaks).

 

[DeanH]

oops, missed the "insert page break" at the end of the OPs comments, thanks
for catching that.
Have you come across these ghost-paragraph marks?
I have tied to narrow down where they originate from without much success.
DeanH

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Nope, haven't seen ghost paragraph marks (AFAIK). Occasionally (as noted in
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/CleanWebText.htm), something will look
like a paragraph mark and actually be a line break or something else; it can
be found with ^13 but not with ^p.

 

[DeanH]

That's it, a line break masquerading as a paragraph mark.
I shall have to change my habit of using ^p and not ^13.
Thanks