Avoiding orphans and widows

Build 1501 on 14/Nov/2017  This topic last edited on: 21/Jul/2017, at 11:42

To eliminate orphans and widows, words or single lines of text that become separated from the other lines in a paragraph or to keep paragraphs together, use the SPC tab on the Compact Control Palette.

Click to toggle graphic size

Note: A widow is a paragraph-ending line that falls at the beginning of the following page or column, thus separated from the rest of the text. An orphan is paragraph-opening line that appears by itself at the bottom of a page or column.

Click to toggle expandFor the selected paragraphs

1.Click in the paragraph where you want to control orphans and widows.

2.On the Type menu, click Compact Control Palette, and then click the SPC tab.

3.Under Unbreakable lines, Starting, specify the number of lines on the beginning of the current paragraph that have to stay together. Specify a fairly large number of lines, e.g. 100 or more, to make sure it will keep any paragraphs together/

4.In Ending, specify the number of lines on the end of the current paragraph that have to stay together as it moves between columns.

5.Select Keep with next, to keep the current paragraph with the next paragraph.
This option is useful for making sure that a heading stays with the next few lines of the paragraph that follows it. When you create paragraph styles for column headings, use this setting to ensure that your headings remain with the paragraph that follows them.
Click to toggle expandFor the current format

Open a format for editing, click Paragraph and then click the Spacing and area breaks tab.

Follow the same steps as for the selected paragraphs.
Click to toggle expandIn a style / with tags

For orphans use >ktt 2<.

For widows, use >ktb 2<.

To keep more paragraphs together, use >kn 1<>ktt 100< where 100 is the max expected number of lines in the paragraph.