Microsoft KB Archive/113906

Knowledge Base

WD: Unbalanced Columns Despite Continuous Section Break

Article ID: 113906

Article Last Modified on 1/18/2007

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APPLIES TO

• Microsoft Word 6.0 Standard Edition
• Microsoft Word 6.0a
• Microsoft Word 6.0c
• Microsoft Word 95 Standard Edition
• Microsoft Word 97 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q113906

SYMPTOMS

When you insert a Continuous section break in a multi-column section, Word for Windows sometimes does not balance the columns.

There are two forms of this problem:

Case 1: The last column is considerably shorter than the previous column(s).

        text text text text     text text text text
        text text text text     text text text text
        text text text text     ===section break===
        text text text text
        text text text text
        text text text text
        text text text text
        text text text text
        text text
                

Case 2: The last column is shorter than the others by several lines at most.

        text text text text     text text text text
        text text text text     text text text text
        text text text text     text text text text
        text text text text     text text text text
        text text text text     ===section break===
        text text text text
                

CAUSE

Case 1 occurs when you open a file from another file format in Word.

Case 2 occurs because of Pagination paragraph formatting. (To view Pagination formatting, choose Paragraph from the Format menu and select the Text Flow tab.)

RESOLUTION

Case 1

To correctly format the columns in a converted document in which one column is much shorter than the others, use the following instructions to clear the Don't Balance Columns for Continuous Section Starts option:

1. From the Tools menu, choose Options.
2. Select the Compatibility tab.
3. Clear the "Don't Balance Columns for Continuous Section Starts" option and then choose OK.

NOTE: If the columns remain unbalanced, you may need to use the steps below for Case 2 as well to correct any paragraph formatting problems.

Case 2

Use the following instructions to correct the Pagination formatting and correctly break the columns in your document:

1. Select the paragraphs in the section that contains the unbalanced columns.
2. From the Format menu, choose Paragraph.
3. Select the Text Flow tab.
4. Clear all four options in the Pagination section (Widow/Orphan Control, Keep Lines Together, Keep With Next, Page Break Before).
5. Choose OK.

NOTE: Widow/Orphan Control is selected by default. It ensures that the last line of a paragraph isn't printed at the top of a column and that the first line of a paragraph is never printed by itself at the bottom of a column. This is done for ease of reading but has the effect of preventing Word from balancing columns.

REFERENCES

"Microsoft Word User's Guide," version 6.0, page 273

Additional query words: 6.0 winword 7.0 word95 word6 word7 word97

Keywords: kblayout kbualink97 KB113906

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