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Keeping Tables on One Page

by Allen Wyatt (last updated January 18, 2012)

As you develop more complex Word documents, it is inevitable that you will add tables. Most tables are relatively short, and can easily fit on a page. Because of this, it can be disconcerting to have a page break occur in the middle of a table. Here's an approach that has always worked for me:

  1. Select all the rows in the table.
  2. Display the Paragraph dialog box. (In Word 2007 display the Home tab of the ribbon and click the small icon at the bottom-right of the Paragraph group. In older versions of Word click Format | Paragraph.)
  3. Make sure the Line and Page Breaks tab is selected. (See Figure 1.)

    4. Figure 1. The Line and Page Breaks tab of the Paragraph dialog box.

  4. Make sure the Keep Lines Together check box is selected.
  5. Click on OK.

Now you need to repeat the same steps, with two minor variations. First, in step 1 select all the rows except the last one. Then, in step 4, make sure the Keep With Next check box is selected. This is necessary (performing this step with the last row not selected) so that the table stays together as a unit, rather than the table staying with the paragraph that follows it.

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Comments for this tip:

Pierre Sundborg    15 Mar 2012, 18:47
The tip as given is precisely correct and elegant. I was delighted to find it here, as it is not in any of Microsoft's Word help, nor in my favorite reference book, Que's "Using Word 2007". Thank you, sir, for this excellent and important tip!
William J. Wolfe    19 Jan 2012, 11:00
Maggie:

True -- that strategy works to use the paragraph "Keep with Next" attribute keep multiple table rows on one page.

However, my problem is with using a different paragraph attribute ("Keep lines togther") in a table; this attribute seems to not work when multiple paragraphs are inside a table cell -- when, for example, I generate a list of tables or figures in a single table cell.

(Using a table to contain the list allows me to use the table's header row to label the number and page at the top, very handy except for the page-break glitch.)

Thanks for the reply,
-Bill
Maggie    18 Jan 2012, 12:32
I've found that selecting the entire first column (except the last cell of the first column) and selecting "Keep with Next" works. I think this may be less steps than the procedure you described above.
William J. Wolfe    18 Jan 2012, 10:47
In a related issue . . . I have found that the paragraph attribute to "Keep lines together" does not seen to work on text paragraphs in a single table row (cell).

More specifically, I like to format my List of Tables/Figures (field code: { TOC c "Table" h } inside a 1-column, 2-row table so the header row functions as a "false" page header. Although I have the "Table of Figures" style formatted to Keep lines together" (also Widow/orphan control" and "don't hyphenate"), long captions in the list break across pages -- very inconvenient. Any thoughts?

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