Widows/Orphans: Notes

Widow/orphan control is only one of many factors that are taken into account when pages are broken. Other considerations--the normal, minimum, and maximum bottom margin settings, along with the requirement that at least the first line of a note be on the same page as the note call number--actually take precedence over preventing widows and orphans. In many cases, these various requirements are contradictory, and a completely satisfactory resolution is not possible.

Indeed, the Chicago Manual of Style notes that "a manuscript peppered with footnote references, two or more of which might fall in the last line of text on the printed page, may well be a typesetter’s nightmare. Similarly, several long footnotes . . . present a sometimes insoluble problem in any kind of page makeup (15.42). . . . [The solution] requires the cooperation of the author or editor or both (19.40)."

The problems for page makeup are particularly acute for double-spaced papers (as opposed to publication-quality manuscripts), since preventing widows and orphans requires moving two lines (the actual line of text, along with the intervening blank line) at page breaks, thus either shortening or lengthening the page by that number of lines.

While there’s very little you can do about the requirement that the body of notes begin on the same page as where they are called (and, as noted above, this is always a higher priority than widow and orphan control), you can increase the chance of widows and orphans being prevented by making sure that the page margins have enough leeway to allow that to happen. Specifically, for there to be any chance for widow and orphan control to be in effect, the difference between the normal bottom margin and the smallest or largest allowable bottom margin must be at least equal to one line of text. The Nota Bene defaults, which are based on publication-quality manuscripts, allow for a difference of one and a half lines (for both largest and smallest allowable margins). But these default settings will not work in double-spaced text, since, as noted above, two full lines need to be moved to avoid bad breaks.

When setting the minimum and maximum bottom margin, it is not uncommon to allow pages to become longer by fewer lines (say, one line) than one allows them to become shorter (perhaps one would accept a page that is two or three lines shorter). This is in fact what we recommend, especially when double spacing.

The normal bottom margin is set using Format, Page Layout, and then setting the Body Text setting in the frame labeled Bottom. The minimum and maximum settings are adjusted using the Text Flow button on this same dialog. The first setting on the Bottom of Page portion of the Text Flow Adjustments dialog (Allow Page to be Shorter than Normal by: . . .) specifies how many lines you are willing for the page to be shorter than the standard page length. The second setting (Allow Page to be Longer than Normal by: . . .) specifies how many lines longer than the standard length you are willing for the page to become. If using double spacing, at least one of these settings must be two lines or more in order for widows and orphans to work properly.

Finally, to repeat what was said at the outset: If you make the necessary adjustments as described above, widows and orphans may still be encountered if preventing them would lead to an even more problematic bad break, specifically related to unlinking footnotes to the page on which they appear. Furthermore, you need to remember that sometimes preventing a widow or orphan on the current page would lead to even more troublesome breaks at the bottom of the next page, and page break calculations need to take that into account. In short, a total ban on widows and orphans may require the "cooperation of author and editor or both."