Keeping blocks of info together (Word 2000 (?))

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I’m having trouble in keeping blocks of info together in a Word document. My first attempt was to insert non-breaking table rows where needed in between regular text. That worked for a time but now gives me the results in the attachment (a partial copy-and-paste from the original). Note on page 1, I can’t seem to get the second table row to move from page 2 into the ample white space on page 1. And on page 2, the table rows don’t skip to the next page, but partially print into the footer.

I’m doing volunteer work at my local library weekly, not sure of Word version, since this is posted from my 8 to 5 job. But it seems to exhibit the same results in my work copy of Word 2003.

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Sundog,
In your sample, you have nested tables – that is, the second book starts a new table within the first table. You can see this if you turn on gridlines (the second book has a double grid line). You can confirm this by using Table->Convert to text and deselecting “Convert nested tables”.

I noticed that you have all your styles set to Automatically update – This is skating on thin ice – Letting Word define your styles ! I strongly recommend that you remove Automatic update. A lot of us turn off everything automatic as a matter of course.

Also, being a purist, I recommend that you only use tables for tabular data, not for forcing formatting. I believe you can achieve what you want by setting all your paragraph styles to be “Keep with next” except for your “Bottom line style” where you should turn it off. This will have the effect of forcing everything onto the next page unless the bottom line style fits on the current page.

Regards,
Judith

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Judith, thanks for figuring out the nested table bit! I don’t quite know how I did that.

The Automatically Update bit apparently is an artifact of the copy-and-paste operation into a new document, Word trying to HELP me, I suppose. Auto Update was OFF in the original document, but thanks for the reminder.

Unfortunately, Keep With Next does not prevent Word from putting in page breaks when it pleases. See attached. I modified all styles to add Keep With Next except for the BottomLineStyle, and eliminated BodyText empty paragraphs for line spacing in favor of Space After, and turned Auto Update off. But Word still breaks up my blocks.

Do you or anyone have another suggestion about keeping blocks of text together?

Thanks for the help!

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In the document you attached, Keep with Next is still set for the BottomLineStyle. If you turn it off, the blocks will break correctly.

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Thanks, Hans, that did it.

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Thanks, Hans, that did it.

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In the document you attached, Keep with Next is still set for the BottomLineStyle. If you turn it off, the blocks will break correctly.

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(Edited by judithmc on 17-Dec-04 09:18. )

Sundog,
In the attached sample, you have “keep with next” set for BottomLineStyle. This gives it nowhere to legally break so it breaks where it wants.
I removed it and now the breaks are OK.

By the way, I strongly recommend space before, not space after. I prevents you having to define special styles like Last_List_Item.

Regards,
Judith

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Thanks Judith. That did it.

‘Preciate the Space Before tip, makes sense.

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Thanks Judith. That did it.

‘Preciate the Space Before tip, makes sense.

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(Edited by judithmc on 17-Dec-04 09:18. )

Sundog,
In the attached sample, you have “keep with next” set for BottomLineStyle. This gives it nowhere to legally break so it breaks where it wants.
I removed it and now the breaks are OK.

By the way, I strongly recommend space before, not space after. I prevents you having to define special styles like Last_List_Item.

Regards,
Judith

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Judith, thanks for figuring out the nested table bit! I don’t quite know how I did that.

The Automatically Update bit apparently is an artifact of the copy-and-paste operation into a new document, Word trying to HELP me, I suppose. Auto Update was OFF in the original document, but thanks for the reminder.

Unfortunately, Keep With Next does not prevent Word from putting in page breaks when it pleases. See attached. I modified all styles to add Keep With Next except for the BottomLineStyle, and eliminated BodyText empty paragraphs for line spacing in favor of Space After, and turned Auto Update off. But Word still breaks up my blocks.

Do you or anyone have another suggestion about keeping blocks of text together?

Thanks for the help!

Reply | Quote

Sundog,
In your sample, you have nested tables – that is, the second book starts a new table within the first table. You can see this if you turn on gridlines (the second book has a double grid line). You can confirm this by using Table->Convert to text and deselecting “Convert nested tables”.

I noticed that you have all your styles set to Automatically update – This is skating on thin ice – Letting Word define your styles ! I strongly recommend that you remove Automatic update. A lot of us turn off everything automatic as a matter of course.

Also, being a purist, I recommend that you only use tables for tabular data, not for forcing formatting. I believe you can achieve what you want by setting all your paragraph styles to be “Keep with next” except for your “Bottom line style” where you should turn it off. This will have the effect of forcing everything onto the next page unless the bottom line style fits on the current page.

Regards,
Judith

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