Help with extra space at bottom of pages.

users
#1

I have several multi-page documents that have extra space at the bottom of the page. Turning on the "View" -> "Non-printing characters" shows one or two paragraph markers and then an inch or more of extra space.

If I go to the last paragraph and hit delete twice it will generally draw up the paragraph from the next page. I then hit enter twice and the new paragraph stays on the page. Since my paragraphs are short I can do that a few times on each page.

This issue is that I'd rather not do that several times on each of a hundred or so pages. Is there anything else I can look to check? Using LibreOffice 5.2.1.2 on Linux.

Thanks!

Leam

#2

Hello Leam,

I suggest try the following...

Open your document then...
Ctrl+A

This will select *everything* in the document

Then right-click to bring up the context menu

Click on the "Paragraph..." option

In the dialog box that appears click the "Text Flow" tab

At the bottom of this tab in the "Options" tic "Do not split paragraph". If
this is not available clear the tics in "Orphan control" and "Window
control". Once that's done it should be possible to tic "Do not split
paragraph".

Now go back through your document with "View > Non-printing characters"
enabled. Delete all the extra paragraphs you've inserted to cause your
paragraphs to display in their entirety on one page.

With "Do not spit paragraph" enabled your paragraphs will not split across
pages.

#3

Alan, I appreciate the detailed instructions. However, they didn't resolve the issue. My explanation may be lacking, let me try again.

I have a 9 page text based (no formulae, images, etc) document open in "Normal" view, and have just completed your instructions on that document. On Page 1, most of the lower half of the page is blank. There is a single paragraph break under the last line, and then about half a page of nothing. The first paragraph on Page 2 is a single line.

Interesting note. Viewing in "Normal" view. If I switch to "Web" view, and then switch back, the issue is resolved. However, if I save the file, close it, and reopen, the issue is back.

#4

Perhaps a long shot, have you checked the page Margin Settings ?

Gordon.

#5

Hello Leam

It sounds as if you are using Writer formatting correctly. If this is true, you would want to remove any blank paragraphs.

See "Remove empty paragraphs in LibreOffice Writer" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC6wBA8rRUQ

#6

Do a lot of the paragraphs have "Keep with next paragraph" selected in the "Text Flow" tab? I've seen that do strange things before where paragraphs tend to stay on the last page they were forced onto, because LibreOffice is trying to keep more paragraphs together than actually fit on a page.

Someone posted here a couple of days ago mentioning that "Keep with next paragraph" is always set when opening .docx files. If that's happening in your case, you'd be better off keeping your main copy in .odt format, since that's LibreOffice's "native" format, and just export a copy to .docx to share with other people as and when necessary (or even better, export to PDF if they don't need to edit it).

Mark.

Leam Hall wrote:

#7

I think Tom's tip below was intended for the list:

Tom Davies wrote: