Widows and orphans in Word

Ever heard of widows and orphans in a document?  A widow is where the last line of a page is all by itself at the top of another page.

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An orphan is when the first line of a page is all by itself at the bottom of a page in a document.

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When you run into this issue, there’s a quick fix that allows Word to adjust the spacing for you.  Select the paragraph you want to fix the windows and orphans issue in. Just click the mouse at the beginning and drag to the end.

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Now right-click and choose Paragraph from the menu that pops-up.

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When the Paragraph dialog box opens, click on the Line and Page Breaks tab.

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Tick the box next to Widow/orphan control and choose OK.

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Microsoft Word will automatically add space at the top or bottom of the page to control it. Now, if you don’t want this extra space automatically added and prefer to control it yourself, make sure the box isn’t ticked.

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