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Set pagination and line and page breaks in Pages on Mac
You can use formatting to control how text flows on the page.
Line break: Use a line break, also called a soft return, to start a new line without starting a new paragraph.
Page break: Use a page break (in a word processing document only) to move a line of text to the top of the next page or to start typing on a new page.
You can also prevent single lines of text from appearing on their own at the bottom or top of a page (these are known as widows and orphans).
Force text to the next line or page
Click where you want the break to occur.
Do one of the following:
For a line break: Click
in the toolbar, then choose Line Break. You can also choose Insert > Line Break.
For a page break: Click
in the toolbar, then choose Page Break. You can also choose Insert > Page Break.
When you insert a line break or page break, Pages inserts a formatting character called an invisible. You can turn on invisibles in the document to see where special formatting is applied.
Prevent single lines of text from appearing at the top or bottom of a page
You can prevent the first line of a paragraph from appearing alone at the bottom of a page (called a widow line) or the last line of a paragraph from appearing alone at the top of a page (called an orphan line).
Click in the paragraph where you want to prevent the single line of text from appearing.
In the Format
sidebar, click the More button near the top.
Select the tick box next to “Prevent widow and orphan lines”.
Set how paragraphs break between pages
Pages can automatically adjust how paragraphs break between pages in a document. For example, you can make sure a heading and the next paragraph always appear on the same page.
Select the paragraphs you want the settings to apply to.
In the Format
sidebar, click the More button near the top.
Select any tick boxes in the Pagination and Breaks section:
Keep lines on same page: Keeps all lines of the paragraph on the same page.
Keep with next paragraph: Keeps the paragraph on the same page as the one that follows it.
Start paragraph on a new page: Moves the paragraph to the top of the next page.
Prevent widow and orphan lines: Prevents the first or last line of the paragraph from appearing alone on a page.
Remove a formatting break
Click to the right of the formatting mark, then press Delete on your keyboard.
You can turn on invisibles in the document to see where special formatting is applied.