MS Word 365 -- suppress paragraph "spacing before" if paragraph is first on page

Question

I searched the existing questions and did not find one that matched this one exactly.

I usually define my paragraphs in MS Word with a setting of 12 points for "spacing before". This does a great job of making the paragraphs on a page visually distinct from each other. As I type into a document, Word automatically takes me to a new page to continue typing whenever I run out of space on the current page. If the text on the new page starts with a new paragraph, that paragraph inherits the setting of 12 points for "spacing before", with the result being that there is effectively a blank line at the top of the page.

My current remedy is to go in and manually set the "spacing before" attribute to zero on just that paragraph. However, if I modify the text on the preceding page in a way that causes that topmost zero-spaced paragraph either to fall back to the preceding page or move down on the current page with a new first paragraph above it, then it abuts up against the paragraph above it and I have to manually go back in again to set the "spacing before" attribute back to 12 points.

Is there a way to specify that paragraphs are to have spacing of 12 points before, only when they are not positioned at the top of its page, and to automatically adjust whenever the text reflows?

Answer 1

In Word Options > Advanced, in the Layout options section, there are options for 'Suppress extra line spacing at bottom of page' and 'Suppress extra line spacing at top of page'.

One other half-solution is to change your formats so that the 12 points of space are below the paragraphs instead of above. Unless you're using a very strict grid layout, the bottom edge of your pages will probably already be uneven from one page to the next; so the extra space might be less noticeable there than at the top of the page.

Update: Sorry, It didn't register that the question was about Word 365 specifically. I don't know whether this answer (or at least the first part of it) applies to a non-desktop version of Word.

Answer 2

Is the document in compatibility mode?

By default, space-before paragraph formatting is ignored at the top of a new page.

Exceptions to this are:

• Documents in Compatibility Mode for an earlier version before the change*
• If the page is the first page in the document or section

*This is a change. I believe it started with Word 2013, thus the question about compatibility mode.