How to Control Widow and Orphan Lines in Your Technical Document

widow line

You should avoid widow and orphan lines in your technical documents.

A WIDOW line is one that ends up all alone at the top of the page.

An ORPHAN line is the opposite: it’s that single line that sits at the bottom of the page.

Both look weak (especially an orphan HEADER) and should be avoided:

(Click to enlarge the image)
Microsoft Word Widow and Orphan
Here is how you can control such ugly breaks in text flow.

In Microsoft Word:

Place your cursor inside a widow/orphan line.
In the HOME tab of the ribbon, right click the PARAGRAPH SYLE and from the pop-up menu select the MODIFY command:
Microsoft Word Paragraph Style MODIFY command
In the MODIFY STYLE screen, click Format > Paragraph to display the PARAGRAPH dialog box:

Microsoft Word Widow and Orphan Control
Make sure WIDOW-ORPHAN CONTROL check-box is selected. Click OK to save the setting.

In Adobe FrameMaker:

Place your cursor inside a widow/orphan line.
Open the Paragraph Designer by pressing Ctrl + M.
Click the PAGINATION button (3rd from left):
Adobe FrameMaker Widow and Orphan Control
Set the Widow/Orphan Lines field setting to at least 2. This will make sure that you’ll have at least two lines at the bottom or top of a page.
Click Apply.

2 Comments

  1. Dana C on August 9, 2011 at 2:55 pm

    “Both look weak (especially an orphan HEADER) and should be avoided:”
    I think you mean headING. Header is located at the top of the section pages; for example a chapter title.



    • admin on August 9, 2011 at 11:36 pm

      Dana, thanks for your comment. From time to time my journalism background surfaces I guess… In the news business “heading” and “header” are used interchangeably. I’ve seen and heard both used frequently to mean the same thing. Here, you could use “heading” and you’d be correct. No problem. But since MS Word also calls its paragraph style tags “Heading 1”, “Heading 2” etc. I try to reserve the term “heading” for paragraph styles whenever I can. After all is said and done, there probably is not a single correct way to do it. It’s just a matter of different conventions, accepted by different folks in different contexts. I feel rather “liberal” about this issue 🙂