Large unexplained gaps in word document (again)

The simplest way to check the formatting of a paragraph is to click in it and press Shift+F1 to open the reveal formatting pane. I usually check the box at the bottom of that pane to reveal style source.

Assuming that the gaps appear below the last line of text on a page, it could be caused by the formatting of the first paragraph on the following page, which may be formatted to be Kept with next, or to have a Page Break before it.

If you cannot sort it out by accessing the Paragraph dialog, if you send me a copy of the document, referencing this thread in the covering email message, I will investigate the issue.

It sounds like you have applied the "Full Justification" paragraph formatting.

Look in the Home tab > Paragraph group.  Normally "Align Left" formatting is applied.  If you do not see this button highlighted, click on it or use the <CTL><L> shortcut to apply it. If that fixes the problem, take a look at the style to see if you have to change the paragraph justification applied in the style. 

**modify styles in Microsoft Word** 

https://shaunakelly.com/word/styles/modifyastyle.html 

Word 2000 2002 2003 2007 2010  Last updated 15 June 2010.                                                                                                              Shauna Kelly

Word has dozens of built-in styles. But the pre-set formatting may not suit your needs.  You can modify any of Word's built-in styles. This page describes two different methods for modifying paragraph or character styles.

Here are some additional tips about styles in general.

@The Basics of Word Styles and Templates: What, Where, How and WhyThis collection of 4 short articles provides a quick overview into using Styles and Templates in Word 2016 (and earlier). (There are other similar articles for older versions, which are still relevant.)

The first article reviews the various formatting options in Word.

The second tells and SHOWS you where to find all of these features.

The third is a brief introduction in how to use these tools and features

The end of the last one covers many of the best reasons for using styles.

Word Styles from the beginninghttps://office-watch.com/2015/word-styles-from-the-beginning/

I know talking about styles in Word makes eyes glaze over but they are a really useful part of Word (plus Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook).

In this article we’ll explain the different types of styles including at least one that sneaked in without many people noticing.   From just one type in the early days of Word, there’s five different style types in Word 2007, Word 2010 and Word 2013.

Word: where are all the Style controls?https://office-watch.com/2016/word-where-are-all-the-style-controls/

Microsoft Word, since 2007, has developed a confusing mish-mash of lists, galleries and dialog boxes to view, select and manage styles.  This Office-Watch.com article will try to make sense of it all. It’s a guided tour to the various Style setup, configuration and management options spread around Word.

What is a Style in Word, Excel or Outlook?

https://office-watch.com/2017/what-is-a-style-in-word-excel-or-outlook/

9 January 2017

A style is a collection of formatting choices combined under a single name. Any word or even a single letter has a collection of formatting settings as well. Font: size, color, bold/italic/underline/strikethrough/subscript/superscript, highlighting and more. Position: Left, Center, Right, Justified. List: bullet, numbering. Line Spacing, Borders, Background color and a lot more details. Instead of […]

Word – types of Styles available

https://office-watch.com/2017/word-types-of-styles-available/

9 January 2017

Originally, Word only had paragraph styles.  Styles could only be applied to an entire paragraph.  Any changes to an individual word or phrase had to be done individually. Character Styles More recently, we got Character Styles.  Now you can have a style that can apply to any group of letters or words in a paragraph.  […]

Word Style inheritance made clear and simplehttps://office-watch.com/2017/word-style-inheritance-made-clear-and-simple/

9 January 2017

Styles in Microsoft Word would be very cumbersome if you had to set up each one individually. To make it easier, styles have inheritance.  A new style is usually a copy, linked to an existing style with just some changes to selected items. Here’s an example of inheritance in a simple Word document. This is […]

@Making Sure Styles Don’t Update Automaticallyhttp://wordribbon.tips.net/T011159_Making_Sure_Styles_Do_Not_Update_Automatically.html****Nancy does a lot of work on templates. She doesn't want the template to "Automatically Update Document Styles." When she unchecks that check box in her templates (including the Normal template) it appears unchecked, but won't stay unchecked—the next time she opens the document or the template, it is checked again. Nancy wants users to create a document based on the template, but be able to modify styles without having that "Automatically Update Document Styles" check box enabled.

In addition to "Keep with next," "Page break before," and "Keep lines together" formatting (found in the Paragraph dialog box), see if there is a footnote in any of the text lines that keep moving. Word tries to keep the footnote reference and the footnote text on the same page and the end result may affect the text flow.

HI Doug,

Many thanks for your response.  I checked formatting you mention having seen it on another thread but all seemed okay.  Since then I passed the document to my colleague to complete on her computer which worked okay for her.  However we all get this problem many times.  

Unfortunately since the problem has been fixed I can no longer send you the document to find out the problem.  It is a shame as it would have been useful to know for future reference.

many thanks

Phil