Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Keeping Paragraphs on the Same Page.

Keeping Paragraphs on the Same Page

by Allen Wyatt
(last updated August 25, 2018)

For some types of documents you may not want your paragraphs to smoothly flow from one page to the next. Instead, you may want to make sure that any given paragraph appears all on one page or another. I require this type of formatting quite often in letters, legal documents, and proposals.

Word includes a formatting feature that allows you to ensure that paragraphs stay together without a page break in the middle of them. You apply this format characteristic by following these steps:

Select the paragraph or paragraphs you want affected by the formatting change. (If you want the change to a single paragraph only, you can simply make sure the insertion point is within that paragraph.)
Choose Paragraph from the Format menu. Word displays the Paragraph dialog box.
Make sure the Line and Page Breaks tab is selected. (See Figure 1.)

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

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

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1433) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Keeping Paragraphs on the Same Page.

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. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Changing Styles

Styles are a great boon to making your documents look better and making them easier to update. You can change the ...

Discover More

Counting Displayed Cells

When you filter data, Excel displays only a portion of what is really in a worksheet. If you want to count the number of ...

Discover More

Separating Cells Based on Text Color

If the font color used for the data in your worksheet is critical, you may at some time want to move cells that use a ...

Discover More

Create Custom Apps with VBA! Discover how to extend the capabilities of Office 2013 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Access) with VBA programming, using it for writing macros, automating Office applications, and creating custom applications. Check out Mastering VBA for Office 2013 today!

More WordTips (menu)

Decreasing a Paragraph's Indent

When formatting your document, you often have need to indent paragraphs. If you later want to decrease the indent used on ...

Discover More

Creating a Hanging Indent

One of the more common formatting tasks for paragraphs is to create hanging indents. This tip explains what they are and ...

Discover More

Adjusting Space Before

If you need to adjust the space that appears before a paragraph, there are several ways you can approach the adjustment. ...

Discover More

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.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is 5 - 4?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.