paragraph style's Space-before parameter is ignored

I have a style "List Bullet 2" for which the Space-Before is set to 6 points.  Yet some of my paragraphs don't seem to respect this.  I don't see any indication that the parameter has been overridden with a local paragraph setting.  This is the kind of thing that drives people to LaTeX.  What could possibly cause this?

Afternote:  This really should come as no surprise.  I'm stuck here late in the evening, other priorites gone by the wayside, trapped because Word 2010 (Nth generation) decides to trip me up into a face slam into the ground.  What kind of Word processor flaunts with impunity something as simple as paragraph spacing?  I mean, it's not as if there aren't decades of examples of products that respect the basic functionality of a word processor.  How did we get into this situation where corporations force people to use a product that *so* *doesn't* work.  Not all the time, justwhen you don't have the slack to deal with it.

Answer
Answer

There are two possibilities here:

  1. If you are using the default settings for Word 2010, Spacing Before and Spacing After are not added together but rather merged, the larger amount being used. This behavior was introduced in Word 2000, which added a lot of features designed for Web pages. To restore the functionality of earlier versions, go to File | Options | Advanced: Layout Options and check the box for "Don't use HTML paragraph auto spacing."
  2. Given your follow-up post noting that this is affecting List Bullet styles, the likelihood is a different setting: "Don't add space between paragraphs of the same style" in the Paragraph dialog. You can modify the style not to include this setting.

It should be noted that the setting referenced in (2) had been requested by users who wanted space before and after a list but not between list items, a common layout choice.

Microsoft MVP (Word) since 1999
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Last updated June 1, 2023 Views 1,179 Applies to: