Forum Discussion
Word - Same Line Page Breaks Visibly Change Formatting
Within the last week or so, Word suddenly has started changing the formatting of visible text when a page break is used on the same line. How can this be corrected? (To be clear, yes, a page break could moved to the next line or deleted if there is not room for the extra line, but this impacts dozens of templates I have been using for years and I just want to set the formatting back to how it has worked in the past, where a page break inserted at the end of a line with centered text did not change the formatting of the visible text in said line.)
Example 1 below is how it always used to appear whether the page break was on the same line as the centered title text or not.
Example 2 below is how it looks now when the page break is on the same line.
4 Replies
Sure- thanks for taking a look. See images below with hidden text/format marks shown. FYI - The cursor is after the word "center" in both examples.
As soon as I open any in-progress or previous document where a page break was on the same line and the text appeared as shown in Example 1 now shows the centered text aligned left as seen in Example 2. Thus, any minor update to a document necessitates review of the entire document to change if/where any page breaks are located.
Example 1 with format marks shown - in this example, the centered text is shown how it always has looked in the past, when any page break did not change how the visible text formatting appeared (regardless of whether there was a page break and regardless of where a page break was relative to the text).
Example 2 with format marks shown - in this example, the page break is on the same line and the "center" alignment of the text is inexplicably changed to be aligned left.
Typically, a manual page break would move the text to the next page. Are you displaying the document in Draft view or Web Layout view perhaps?
If you mean that formatting applied to the text is "inherited" by the text that follows the break (on the next page), that may happen with manual page breaks. It is a known limitation, especially in older versions of Word which didn't necessarily add a paragraph mark with the page break.
As Charles suggested, it would help if you uploaded a screen shot with nonprinting marks displayed.
Turn on display of non-printing formatting marks.
Nonprinting Formatting Marks by Suzanne Barnhill, MVP
If you want, save a sample document on OneDrive or DropBox with the problem and post a share link here so we can look at it.
Thanks Charles. Please see my response on the thread with the requested screenshots.
