Putting page breaks in a document - where are they appropriate?

Factual Questions
1

I have been working with someone on a document which is to be used for an 8-hour (give or take, we’ll see) presentation.

I finished it up and let him know it was in a folder, and he could check it out or whatever.

Now. Putting the thing together included a lot of copy-and-paste from multiple other documents. So in the process, I didn’t worry about spacing/page breaks/front format etc. After all of the ‘stuff’ was in, I went back and put in formatted headings, page breaks, etc. That was the last thing I did, and it took a while.

Well, I talked to ‘P’ on Friday, and he said that he had looked it over, and went in a fixed a bunch of ‘weird spacing issues.’ I thought that was strange, since that was the last thing I did, but I didn’t have time to look at it.

Cut to today, when I get in to review everything to make sure it is ready for tomorrow, and I realize something is amiss. Apparently, ‘P’ and I have different ideas about how to make a document look nice, and on the use of page breaks.

Here is what I do: I don’t have a problem with white space. I’d rather have white space than 1-2 lines dangling at the end of a page. So for example, if I get to the bottom of a page and have a new heading, with only a couple lines of the first paragraph underneath, I’ll just bump it down with a page break. This leaves empty space on the preceding page, but let me start the new page with a new heading.

Another thing I do, and this may be controversial, is when I have more than half of a short paragraph going over into another page. In that case, I’ll bump the whole paragraph, even though it’s not new material and leaves a little empty space.

There were also a few places that, due to graphics, there might be a quarter of the page blank. If I have a larger graphic with a blurb before/after it, it makes more sense to me to put each graphic/blurb combination on its own page, rather than having them running willy-nilly from page to page.

Finally, there were a few pages that had odd breaks before them because that page is meant to be used as something they can take back, copy, and use as a handout or reference…so putting a page break in the middle of it completely defeats that purpose.

So, what are the standard conventions when it comes to putting in page breaks? Also keep in mind that this document is meant to be used in conjunction with our presentation, so being able to scan/find and follow along is important.

2

The standard is to avoid widows and orphans. But adding a page break to move half a paragraph is going overboard.

I always get it confused which one’s a widow and which one’s an orphan.

When there is only the first line of a paragraph fits at the bottom of the page and the rest of the paragraph goes to the next page, it’s OK to push that line onto the next page, or adjust spacing so there are at least two lines.

Likewise when only the last line of a paragraph is on the following page, you can adjust spacing to bring it back, or make sure that at least two lines flow over.

Normally a figure goes in the first available space after the callout in text. If it’s too big to fit on the same page then it floats to the top of the next page. Generally you want to avoid white space, unless is at the end of a chapter/major section.