Ever had a heading in Microsoft Word that seemed to wander off from its paragraph like a rebellious teenager? Or a bullet point that ghosted its follow-up text? Enter “Keep with Next” or KWN to its friends, Word’s low-key matchmaker that makes sure certain paragraphs stay together—forever (or at least until you change your formatting).
What Is “Keep with Next”?
Think of it as paragraph glue for Word documents. When you apply “Keep with Next” to a paragraph, you’re telling Word, “Hey, don’t let this paragraph hang out on its own. It needs to stick with the next one.”.
“Keep with Next” works automatically when the paragraph is the very last thing (footer excluded) at the bottom of a page. Instead the paragraph is ‘pushed’ to the next page to keep it with the following text, list, image or other object. Setting up KWN saves a lot of reformatting and positioning as the document changes because Word will handle the details for you.
It’s especially useful for:
- Headings that should never be separated from the text below them.
- Lists that don’t want their items scattered across pages like a broken grocery list.
- Quotes, captions, or sub-paragraphs that would rather not brave the document wilderness alone.
- Intro paragraphs before pictures or lists.
Here are two examples of “Keep with Next” at work in the paragraph before a list or picture. Before KWN (left) and After KWN (right)
How to Apply Keep With Next
- Click anywhere in the paragraph you want to tether to the one after it.
- Go to the Home tab.
- Click the tiny arrow in the bottom-right corner of the Paragraph group (yep, that sneaky one).
- In the Paragraph dialog box, head to the Line and Page Breaks tab.
- Check the box for Keep with next.
- Click OK, and voilà—your paragraphs are officially co-dependent.
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Keep with Next as a style
The in-built Heading styles all have “Keep with Next” set to prevent a heading stranded at the bottom of a page.
Any other style can have “Keep with Next” as a setting.
A Word expert trick is having two matching styles except that one has “Keep with Next” as well. For example, a “Body Text” style and a linked “Body Text KWN” style.
A Few KWN Tips
- Only apply “Keep with Next” to the first paragraph in a pair. Word automatically keeps it with the one that follows.
- Don’t overdo it. If you keep many things with the next thing, Word will get horribly confused as it tries to put too many paragraphs onto a single page..
“Keep with Next” is the unsung hero of clean, professional layouts. It’s simple, subtle, and incredibly effective. Use it wisely, and your documents will look polished, organized, and delightfully clingy in all the right ways.
More than Widow / Orphan control
How does “Keep with next” compare with the Widow and Orphan setting in Word?
- Widow: A single line of a paragraph that appears at the bottom of a page, separated from the rest of the text.
- Orphan: A single line of a paragraph that appears at the top of a page, separated from the rest of the text.
The Widow/Orphan setting works for a single line of text only.
“Keep with Next” applies to a whole paragraph or other Word object.
What’s missing
“Keep with Next” is OK but Word is missing it’s complement “Keep with Previous” or “Keep with Before“
A “Keep with Previous” paragraph setting would prevent objects like images or charts from appearing at the top of a page without text above it.
