• Why is style separator starting a new paragraph? (MS Word 2010)

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    #508378

    Why is the text following a style separator sometimes forced to a new line?

    For my thesis, I have several tables, and the title of each table is in a single merged cell that spans the width of the table. I am using style separator to select the first few words of table title to appear in my list of figures while keeping the rest of the text in ‘normal style’. Occasionally the text that comes after the style separator is forced to a new line. But this problem is only occurring in two of my ten tables! I’ve spent a few hours on this issue and can’t see any reason why most of my tables are not having this problem, but a few are. I didn’t notice this issue at first because I was making my edits with paragraph marks shown and the text on either side of the style separator was on the same line. When paragraph marks are hidden, the problem is apparent.

    What I want:

    Table 1.1 Air temperature (style separator) as affected by blah blah blah

    What is happening:

    Table 1.1 Air temperature (style separator)

    as affected by blah blah blah

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    • #1593337

      The style separator inserts a hidden paragraph break. In your case it seems that the paragraph break you have inserted is not a hidden break. The ¶ button on the Home tab should help reveal what is happening.

      Split paragraphs are most commonly used for Table of Contents entries, in which case you may find http://www.gmayor.com/table_of_contents_addin.html useful and will help in managing style separators.

    • #1593408

      Graham, thanks for the insight but I’m not sure your suggestion is directed at my specific problem. As I mentioned in my original post, when I select/deselect the ¶ I can see that the style separator isn’t functioning as a hidden paragraph break.
      I would prefer to find a solution that does not involve installing an add-in. While Im sure that this add-in comes in handy (I wish I had know about it when I started my thesis) after reading the description I dont see how it addresses my problem specifically.
      Again, most of my style separators are functioning as intended. I can’t tellwhat is causing just a few to not function as a hidden paragraph break.

    • #1593427

      If the Style separator stops functioning as such, that’s most likely because you’ve done something to change its formatting so that it reverts to acting like a normal paragraph break.

      FWIW, you can get the same effect as having a Style Separator (which doesn’t work on Macs, anyway), by formatting the intervening paragraph break as hidden text. Although the break will be obvious when you have hidden text displayed, it will function the same way a Style Separator does when you don’t have hidden text displayed and in the printed output (provided you don’t have Word configured to print hidden text).

      Cheers,
      Paul Edstein
      [Fmr MS MVP - Word]

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