Widows and Orphans: WD and OP commands

 

A widow is the last line or two of a paragraph carried over to the top of the next page. An orphan is the first line or two of a paragraph at the bottom of a page. The WD (widow) and OP (orphan) commands are used to prevent widows and orphans.

 

To prevent widows or orphans:

 

1Move the cursor to the top of the document, or to the point where you want to begin preventing widows and orphans.
2Press F9 to access the action line.
3Type one of the following commands:
WD to prevent a single line appearing at the top of a page, separated from a paragraph on the previous page
OP to prevent a single line appearing at the bottom of a page, separated from a paragraph on the next page.
4Press F10 to implement the command.

 

The above instructions can be adjusted as follows:

 

To prevent two-line widows, substitute WD 3 for WD in step 3 (3 is the minimum number of lines that can be separated from the rest of the paragraph if two-line widows are to be prevented).
To prevent two-line orphans, substitute OP 3 for OP in step 3 (3 is the minimum number of lines that can be separated from the rest of the paragraph if two-line orphans are to be prevented).
The WD and OP commands count only lines of text. If you are double-spacing a document, they do not count the blank lines.

 

 

See also:

Widows and Orphans (menus)

Non-Breakable Blocks: NB and BB commands