Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Preventing Straggling Heads.

Preventing Straggling Heads

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated September 23, 2023)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365


1

There are certain paragraphs that naturally belong with another paragraph. For instance, section headings belong with the paragraphs that follow them, a signature line belongs with the explanation line that may be after it, and a figure belongs with the caption that may follow it. Word makes it easy to keep certain paragraph pairings together. To format paragraphs so they stay together, use the following steps:

  1. Position the insertion point in the first paragraph of the pair you want to keep together.
  2. Make sure the Home of the ribbon is displayed.
  3. Click the small icon at the bottom-right of the Paragraph group. Word displays the Paragraph dialog box.
  4. Display the Line and Page Breaks tab. (See Figure 1.)
  5. Figure 1. The Line and Page Breaks tab of the Paragraph dialog box.

  6. Make sure the Keep with Next check box is selected.
  7. Click on OK.

You should use this setting sparingly, as you don't want all your paragraphs to have this setting turned on. Plus, don't use it on paragraphs that contain a lot of lines--keeping a 12-line paragraph with the following 15-line paragraph that follows it may seem like a good idea, but it can lead to having a very large amount of white space left at the end of a page as Word moves the two long paragraphs to the following page.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (7118) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Preventing Straggling Heads.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

QuickWords in Word

WordPerfect users coming to Word may miss a feature called QuickWords. This tip examines some ways you can get around the ...

Discover More

Indenting a Paragraph

Normally your text extends from the left margin all the way to the right. If you need to indent a paragraph of your text, ...

Discover More

Limiting Searching to a Column

When you use Find and Replace, Excel normally looks through all the cells in a worksheet. You may want to limit the ...

Discover More

The First and Last Word on Word! Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate Word 2019. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2019 For Dummies today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Resetting Paragraph Formatting

Tired of the formatting used in a paragraph? One way to 'start over' is to make sure that the formatting is reset to its ...

Discover More

Indenting a Paragraph to the Next Tab Stop

Need to indent an entire paragraph from the left margin? It's easy to do using the tool described in this tip, easily ...

Discover More

Put Your Space Before or After?

When working with spacing between paragraphs, Word allows you to specify exactly how much space should be either before ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is six more than 9?

2023-09-25 09:45:40

Joan Koskela

I have used this feature for many, many years. It is also helpful for keeping a paragraph with a following numbered or bulleted list. If the list is short, I add it to all except the last line so it all stays together. If the list is longer, I only add it to the first two items so at least two items stay at the bottom of a page, similar to the widow/orphan command keeps at least two rows of a paragraph on either the bottom and/or top of pages.

This also works for keeping table rows from splitting across pages. Again, you can use this for a short table to keep it all together (in all but the last row) or, if you have a few rows of a table with information that "goes together," to keep those table rows together while still allowing the table to split before or after. (Be sure to use the "Repeat Header Rows" command!)


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.