How do I control where the page breaks will fall in a table which extends over several pages?


How do I control where the page breaks will fall in a table which extends over several pages?

Or:	if I insert a manual page break, then my table heading is not repeated on the next page
Or:	I added an extra row to my table, and suddenly, all but the first row jumped to the next page

Article contributed by Suzanne Barnhill and Dave Rado

Setting a page break at a specific row

Although it would usually be possible to achieve the desired effect with the judicious use of the “Keep with next” property as described in Keeping a table together on one page, luckily there is another way. If you apply the “Page break before” property (also found on the Line and Page Breaks tab of Format Paragraph), you will get a page break and retain your table headings.

I added an extra row to my table, and suddenly, all but the first row jumped to the next page

1.	First, check that you don't have all the paragraphs in your table set to “Keep with Next”.
2.	If that isn't the cause of the problem, check whether your rows are set to “Allow row to break across pages” – if the height of any of the rows is too large, and it's been set not to break across pages, this can cause the table to split inconveniently.
3.	If you are using Word 2000 or above, you should also check that your table's “Wrapping” is set to “None” under Table + Properties. If the Wrapping is set to “Around”, your table will be enclosed in a hidden frame; and tables in frames don't like straddling pages. If you set the “Wrapping” to “None”, the problem should go away. Unfortunately, in Word 2000 and above, it is all too easy to put a table into a hidden frame by accident; if you drag the crosshairs in the top left corner of a table, even by the tiniest amount, it becomes enclosed in a frame – and what's worse, there's no obvious sign that anything has changed – not one of Microsoft's brightest ideas! (The only sign that anything has changed is that if you have Text boundaries turned on under Tools + Options + View, there will be very subtle border line around it). Having said that, one way you can tell, (short of selecting Table + Properties) is to try to select a row. If it's inline, this is easy – just click anywhere in the left margin. With tables in frames, that doesn't work; there is a “hot zone”, which ends about 2mm to the left of the table. and you have to click within that zone in order to select a row. Click any further to the left and you'll select some text below the table instead! So if you find you can't select your rows easily, you know your table is in a frame. And unless you have a very good reason for wanting to have text wrapping on (such as wanting to position two short tables side by side), tables in frames should be avoided at all costs.
4.	If you are using Word 97, and open a document that was originally created in Word 2000, any “floating” tables will appear in a frame – with the same undesirable side-effects as in Word 2000. To remove the frame, select it and then select Format + Frame + Remove Frame.