Word hiding more than white space

[kdock]

I don't quite know what to do with this. I don't usually hide white space (double-clicking on the space between pages). But I've found it useful in several documents I'm editing right now.

But I noticed that when I hid the white space, three lines of text also disappeared. These lines are definitely in the document proper and not the footer. See my screen shots without and with white space hidden.

Word hiding more than margins.png

As you can see, the two short paragraphs following Section II disappear with the white space. The headings have Widow/Orphan suppression and Keep with next checked.

Any thoughts on what might be happening? And how to fix it?
Thanks! Kim

[HansV]

I've never seen that happen. Could you post a small sample document (without sensitive information) that demonstrates the problem?

[StuartR]

You could try disabling hardware graphics acceleration in the Word options dialog and see if it makes a difference

[kdock]

You could try disabling hardware graphics acceleration in the Word options dialog and see if it makes a difference

Tried it and it didn't help. However, I may try turning it off at the graphics card. Separately, and outside of just Office programs, I've been experiencing a slight "pause" in graphics rendering / screen refresh. As I watch the Smilies and listen to my clock tick, I see them stop for less than a second about every 7 seconds. My keyboard and mouse pause at the same half-second, too. Until this moment, I didn't realize how regularly it paused. Or how often!

So, it could be my graphics card. I guess something's going on with it whether it's affecting this document or not.

Hans, when I have a chance, I'll try your suggestion and post. I'm not discounting a little document wackiness. But I think first I'll try it on my laptop.

Thanks! Kim

[kdock]

Oh, good news. It's not my hardware. I went to Performance and Information Tools in Control Panel and Windows wanted to run a new scan based on new hardware (??? I think maybe a new driver). I did what it wanted and now no hiccups.

So, on to the issue of hiding text. I'll still try on my laptop before cleaning the document (lots of desensitizing needed).
Still

[Rudi]

Just a wild guess...but might it be connected to your numbering style?
In the collapsed screenshot, it seems to collapse body text between the two number styles. What happens if you remove the numbering temporarily for that paragraph and then test the white space again? I know that white space is generally not connected to document text or styles, but weirder things have happened before?!

[kdock]

Rudi and Hans!

I wondered, Rudi, if this might be a numbering thing, but no. It seemed as if Word was hiding a specific amount of space. If the position of the number moved up on the page, some of the text immediately below it would display.

However, this started me thinking about the top of that first page. The first line of text was pushed down from the top margin, even though there were no extra paragraph marks, no white space as part of the style, and no manually applied space. Hmmm.

I finally turned on field codes and found an Advance field set to move the text to a specific line on the page. When I removed it, the white space at the bottom of the page behaved.

Another manifestation of this issue -- when I clicked hide white space, the white space at the top of this page didn't hide. Obviously because of the Advance field. I guess Word had to take that space from somewhere, so it took it from the bottom of the page.

The Advance field was an artifact and no longer needed, so problem solved! And while I consider this behavior vaguely buglike, an Advance field is the last thing most people would think of to move the first line of text to a specific place on the page -- it would be so much easier to tweak the white space above.

I know you both would have found this if I'd had the time to sanitize the document and send it, so...


And thanks!
Kim

[Rudi]

Thanks for the update and glad you got it resolved.

[HansV]

Glad you found it - I would never have guessed that without seeing the document...