Please Advise: Word 365 inserting random page breaks in Print Layout mode

"draft mode" is irrelevant to final formatting, aka print preview.

Simply looking at screen captures helps a tiny bit, but it would be much better to see the affected text.

Could you extract a few segments that have this problem and post them on skydrive for us to look at directly?

The first capture shows a break in a totally unexpected place, the "middle" of the para. That there are 2 lines carried over to the next page is suspicious. There may be a "compatibility" option at play

If you want to try and trouble shoot it yourself, here is a tip and an addon tool that may help to expose hidden formatting that may be causing the problem.

 

Reveal Codes in Word - Is there life after “Reveal Codes”? - http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/RevealCodes.htm .  This is an excellent article describing all of the native Word tools for discovering formatting.

 

Formatting Problems? Install CrossEyes - http://www.levitjames.com/Products/CrossEyes.aspx
http://www.howtogeek.com/164343/easily-view-formatting-codes-in-word-2010-using-crosseyes/ - a product review of the tool

This tool adds a pane that converts Word formatting into HTML/WordPefect like “codes”, displaying a WordPerfect like “Reveal Codes” pane. It is a great complement to MS’s inadequate attempt in the <SHF><F1> “Reveal Formatting” pane.

 

I would be looking for a phantom object, perhaps anchored to the footer, that text is wrapping around. See http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/UnaccountablyIndented.htm for an example of one of the kinds of problems this can cause.

Thank you both for your efforts and assistance.

It is too obvious to ask, but ... , did you turn on the "Show feature" to show hidden formatting characters like line breaks, spaces and tabs.

I don't expect your problem to be any of those characters, but it may be visible as one of the others.

On feature I'm wondering if you have turned on is the paragraph "Keep with Next" option on the "broken" paragraph and the following one.

The specific compatibility Options I am thinking are found in File menu > Options command > Advanced option. Scroll down to the very bottom. In 2013 many of the compatibility options are hidden in 2013 format, but displayed in other formats. I suspect your issue is with one or more of these very esoteric settings.

Hi, Rohn007, and thanks again.  

Well.  The good news is that now only one spot in the file is doing that weird break thing.  I couldn't get the other places to replicate the problem again (after having "fixed" it by saving in compatibility mode).

Good news, the problem hasn't disappeared!

Better (or maybe worse) news is that the 'broken' paragraph DOES have "keep with next" turned on, and turning it off, unbreaks it.   With cursor in the paragraph, Home tab > Paragraph group > Dialog Launcher button (that little blur on the group name level) to open the "Paragraph" dialog box. Click on the "Lines and Page Breaks" tab.  The "offending" check box is the second from the top.

That still leaves a big ugly white space between the paragraphs.

Turning off "Keep with next" in the next para move it up to the previous page. Repeat through the whole document

In other words, you should turn off "Keep with next" in your whole document. It should not be applied to the body text of the whole document. It should only be used in limited places.

The clue for me was the artificial break 2 lines from the end of the paragraph. That is a "symptom" of the "Widow and Orphan Control" option.  Without it turned on, you would only see one line on the next page.



PS: you sound like an average "computer user". As a professional software developer I long ago learned to "expect the unexpected" from "typical users".  I would build something perfectly logical, and the user testers or "real" users would come back, figuratively scratching their heads saying "it's broke" or "why did you do that ..." . Then when they describe the problem, I would be the one scratching his head, thinking very quietly, "who in their right mind would do THAT!" <grin>. Of course, the first reply is "Well, DON'T DO THAT!"  (punch line from a bad doctor joke ... "Dr, Dr., it hurts when I do this ..." ).  "Users" are the downside of being a programmer. They don't think like programmers, and it hurts our brains trying to think like them <grin>.

This is so bizarre.

It's magic ...

First, check the relevant styles, probably NORMAL. Make sure the option is not turned on there so you don't keep creating the problem.

To fix existing documents, use <CTL><A> to select the whole document then go into the dialog and turn it of. When you enter the dialog the check box will be greyed out. Click on it once to turn it on in all of the selection, then click on it again to turn it off. Do that for both options I mentioned.

Don't micromanage. The Keep with next option should only be used in specific places. Normally you should let word handle the page breaks in paragraphs.

"Appropriate" places are heading styles (ie to always keep the heading together with the body text), or the 2 paragraphs holding a picture and its caption, or in a small table.

"Keep with Next" is actually something I've never used, in any document, willingly, for as long as I've been using Word.  So unless it comes automatically turned on in the Normal style in Word 2013/365, I have no idea how it got turned on in the first place, why it was UNchecked when I first looked, or why, most oddly, it would only have affected two or three paragraphs, splitting them in the middle of the paragraph, in the whole document.