How to delete paragraph marks (returns) without affecting spacing, like at the top of the next page

if you have a large document and you add two returns at the end of every major section or group but one of the two returns goes to next page, how do you keep that return so it doesn't mess up spacing if something is added earlier in document but get rid of it so the top of the page is the same as the other pages? I was wondering if there was something like a hidden return that would hide the paragraph at the top of the page but if more information was added before it, it would act like a regular return. Hope this makes sense.

Also do you know what the paragraph maker with a dotted box around it is? I was trying to solve the above problem by trying different keys with the return key, e.g. control + return gives you a page break, shift + return gives you a soft return, control + alt + return gives you this funky paragraph symbol that seems to erase lines in front of it at least it did when I printed out a page using them.

April 16th, 2015 7:10pm

Instead of using two returns, you should format the paragraphs so that they have space after them.  Or, even better, make that modification to the Style that is being used for the text.
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April 17th, 2015 4:48am

Thank you! I've never used Styles but have used the formatting. I just didn't want to have to go to the bottom of every page and change the paragraph formatting but format painter helped a lot. Thanks again.
April 17th, 2015 3:31pm

If you want to learn more about styles, start at http://shaunakelly.com/topic/word/styles.
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April 21st, 2015 4:41am

Thank you! I've never used Styles but have used the formatting. I just didn't want to have to go to the bottom of every page and change the paragraph formatting but format painter helped a lot. Thanks again.

You could also use a heading style for the start of your next major block of text which is formatted to have a page break before. Styles are at the heart of Word formatting. Take the time to learn about them to save a lot of time and hair pulling.

Read the link that Stefan gave you. If you want more, see Understanding Styles in Microsoft Wor

April 21st, 2015 9:25am