Banishing Gaps in Microsoft Word: A Comprehensive Guide

This tutorial will equip you with the knowledge to eliminate those frustrating large gaps that often plague Microsoft Word documents. We’ll explore both manual techniques for identifying and rectifying these issues and a more streamlined approach using a macro. Watch the video above and download the featured file.

Unveiling the Culprits: Show/Hide and Break Analysis

The first step in our gap-busting mission is to make the invisible visible. By clicking the “Show/Hide” button on the “Home” tab, you reveal the usually hidden characters within your document – paragraph marks, section breaks, and page breaks. These characters can hold the key to understanding the source of your gap woes.

Consecutive empty paragraph marks are a common offender. A quick press of the backspace key will send these packing. Next, turn your attention to section and page breaks. When “Show/Hide” is activated, page breaks are clearly marked as “Page Break”. To banish them, simply click to the left of the break and hit the delete key. Section breaks, which appear as “Section Break (Next Page)”, are dealt with in the same manner. These breaks often serve the purpose of applying different formatting to sections of your document, such as switching from portrait to landscape orientation.

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Spacing and Pagination Settings

Breaks and empty paragraphs might be easy to spot, but pagination settings can be a more subtle source of gaps. Let’s start by clicking into the heading where a gap is present. Then, access the paragraph settings via the launcher button within the “Paragraph” group on the “Home” tab.

Head over to the “Indents and Spacing” tab and focus on the “Spacing” section. A hefty value in the “Before” field can push the paragraph down, creating a gap above it. Adjusting this value to a smaller number, such as 12 points, will help close the gap.

Exploring pagination settings doesn’t end there. The “Keep with next” setting, for instance, insists that the selected paragraphs stick with the paragraph that follows, remaining on the same page. If this setting is applied unnecessarily, it can result in a gap above the selected text. To rectify this, select the text causing the gap, open the paragraph settings dialogue box, and uncheck the “Keep with next” box in the Line and Page Breaks tab.

Another setting that can cause trouble is “Keep lines together”, also found in the paragraph settings dialogue box. This setting forces the entire paragraph to stay together on a single page, potentially leading to a gap above it if the paragraph sits near the bottom of a page. Unchecking the “Keep lines together” box will restore harmony.

Finally, the “Page break before” setting can create a gap by demanding a new page before the selected paragraph. Unchecking this box in the paragraph settings dialogue box will relocate the paragraph to the previous page, effectively eliminating the gap.

Vertical Alignment: Maintaining Top-Notch Spacing

Gaps appearing at both the top and bottom of a page often signal a vertical alignment issue. This setting governs the vertical positioning of text on the page. To address this, navigate to the “Layout” tab and click the Page Setup launcher.

Proceed to the “Layout” tab and ensure the vertical alignment is set to “Top”. This default setting typically resolves gaps that appear at both extremities of the page.

Macro: One-Click Gap Removal

For those seeking a more automated solution, here’s a macro that eliminates gaps with a single click. Use this macro on a copy of your document first!

Sub RemoveAllFormattingAndSetSpacing()
    Dim para As Paragraph
    Dim rng As Range
    Dim userSpacing As String
    Dim spacingValue As Single
    Dim headingStyles As Variant
    Dim isHeadingStyle As Boolean
    Dim styleName As String
    Dim i As Integer
    
    ' Define array of heading styles to retain "Keep with Next" and "Keep Lines Together"
    headingStyles = Array("Heading 1", "Heading 2", "Heading 3", "Heading 4", "Heading 5", "Heading 6")
    
    ' Keep asking for valid spacing until the user provides it or presses Cancel
    Do
        userSpacing = InputBox("Enter the desired spacing (in points) between paragraphs:", "Specify Paragraph Spacing", "12")
        
        ' Exit if the user presses Cancel
        If userSpacing = "" Then Exit Sub
        
        ' Validate the input
        If IsNumeric(userSpacing) Then
            spacingValue = CSng(userSpacing)
            If spacingValue >= 0 Then Exit Do ' Valid spacing entered
        End If
        
        MsgBox "Invalid input. Please enter a positive numeric value.", vbExclamation
    Loop
    
    ' Loop through all paragraphs to remove "Page Break Before", "Keep with Next", "Keep Lines Together" and adjust paragraph spacing
    For Each para In ActiveDocument.Paragraphs
        ' Check if the paragraph uses a heading style
        styleName = para.Style
        isHeadingStyle = False
        For i = LBound(headingStyles) To UBound(headingStyles)
            If styleName = headingStyles(i) Then
                isHeadingStyle = True
                Exit For
            End If
        Next i
        
        ' Remove "Page Break Before" setting (even for heading styles)
        para.Format.PageBreakBefore = False
        
        ' Set "Keep with Next" and "Keep Lines Together" to False unless it's a heading style
        If Not isHeadingStyle Then
            para.Format.KeepWithNext = False
            para.Format.KeepTogether = False
        End If
        
        ' Set uniform spacing between all paragraphs (using Paragraph After spacing)
        para.Format.SpaceBefore = 0 ' Reset Paragraph Before spacing
        para.Format.SpaceAfter = spacingValue ' Apply user-defined spacing to Paragraph After
    Next para
    
    ' Set vertical page alignment to Top for all pages
    ActiveDocument.PageSetup.VerticalAlignment = wdAlignVerticalTop

    ' Remove all section breaks without deleting content
    Set rng = ActiveDocument.Range
    With rng.Find
        .ClearFormatting
        .Text = "^b" ' Section break character
        .Replacement.ClearFormatting
        .Replacement.Text = ""
        .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
    End With

    ' Remove all page breaks (manual breaks) without deleting content
    Set rng = ActiveDocument.Range
    With rng.Find
        .ClearFormatting
        .Text = "^m" ' Page break character
        .Replacement.ClearFormatting
        .Replacement.Text = ""
        .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
    End With
    
    ' Remove double paragraph marks (extra empty paragraphs)
    Set rng = ActiveDocument.Range
    With rng.Find
        .ClearFormatting
        .Text = "^p^p" ' Double paragraph marks
        .Replacement.ClearFormatting
        .Replacement.Text = "^p" ' Replace with a single paragraph mark
        .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
    End With
    
    Set rng = ActiveDocument.Range
    With rng.Find
        .ClearFormatting
        .Text = "^p^p" ' Double paragraph marks
        .Replacement.ClearFormatting
        .Replacement.Text = "^p" ' Replace with a single paragraph mark
        .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
    End With
    
    Set rng = ActiveDocument.Range
    With rng.Find
        .ClearFormatting
        .Text = "^p^p" ' Double paragraph marks
        .Replacement.ClearFormatting
        .Replacement.Text = "^p" ' Replace with a single paragraph mark
        .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
    End With
    
    Set rng = ActiveDocument.Range
    With rng.Find
        .ClearFormatting
        .Text = "^p^p" ' Double paragraph marks
        .Replacement.ClearFormatting
        .Replacement.Text = "^p" ' Replace with a single paragraph mark
        .Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
    End With

    MsgBox "All formatting settings have been removed, vertical alignment set to top, and uniform paragraph spacing applied.", vbInformation
End Sub

Installing the Macro

Use this macro on a copy of your document first!

To install the macro first activate the “Developer” tab in Word. Right-click on any existing tab and choose “Customize the Ribbon”. Tick the “Developer” option and confirm with an “OK”.

Now, click the “Visual Basic” button residing on the “Developer” tab. Ensure the “Project Explorer” pane is visible. If not, go to the “View” menu and select “Project Explorer”. Locate the project named “Normal” and insert a module by right-clicking on “Normal” and choosing “Insert” > “Module”. Copy and paste the macro code into the code window of the newly created module, and then close the Visual Basic editor.

 

To use the macro you can create a button for it. Right-click on any tab and select “Customize the Ribbon”. Create a new tab, calling it “Macros” or a name of your liking. Within this new “Macros” tab, create a new group. From the “Choose commands from:” dropdown menu, select “Macros”. Now, add the gap-removing macro to this group by selecting it and clicking “Add”. Feel free to customize the button with a new name and an image.

With your macro button ready, a single click will prompt you to enter your desired paragraph spacing (12 points is generally a good starting point). Confirming this setting will set the macro in motion, resolving spacing issues throughout your document.

Deconstructing the Macro’s Magic

This macro works by systematically tackling the various formatting elements that can contribute to unwanted gaps. It starts by targeting any instances of the “Page break before” setting, regardless of whether it’s applied to headings or regular text.

Next in line are the pagination settings, including “Keep with next”, “Keep together”, “Spacing Before”, and “Spacing After”. The macro also corrects any page alignment issues, ensuring it’s set to “Top”.

The macro then leverages Word’s find and replace functionality to remove all section and page breaks. It achieves this by searching for the specific codes representing these breaks: “^b” for section breaks and “^m” for page breaks.

Finally, the macro eliminates empty paragraphs by finding two consecutive paragraph marks and replacing them with a single paragraph mark. This process is repeated several times to ensure the removal of multiple empty paragraphs.

The beauty of this macro lies in its ability to address a wide range of formatting inconsistencies that can cause gaps. Saving it in the “Normal” template ensures it’s available in all new documents, preventing the need for manual corrections in each new file.