Word table always starting from next page: 4 causes and how to stop it.

Ms Word has almost all the settings and formatting options you may think of. Most of the times, they help us achieve what we need. However, there are also examples where such sophisticated settings are turned on/off without our knowledge and cause undesirable effects. One such example I faced is table starting from the next page.

Table of Contents

Problem

My Ms Word table was always jumping to next page even after having lot of space in the previous page. No page/section break and no blank lines before table but still irrespective of what I do, table always started on the next page.

Table jumping to next page without a page break and blank lines — Table starting from next page even after having lot of space before it

Four Solution: Prevent table from jumping to next page

Problem #1: Move with text disabled

Solution: To correct this problem,

Select the entire table and go to Layout Tab and click Properties.
In Table Properties window go to Table, and click Positioning under Text wrapping options.

open table properties — Open table properties

Check the box against “Move with text” and close all the windows by clicking Ok

If this was the root cause, then now your table should occupy empty space as desired. You can try other solutions is problem persists.

Problem #2: Incorrect setup of repeat header rows

Ms Word provides a feature to repeat header row when table extends to new page. This feature is useful however, incorrect setup of repeat header rows can make your table start from next page.

Solution: Turn off repeat header rows

Select the entire table.
Go to Layout tab and deselect “Repeat Header Rows”

If this solves the problem, you can again setup table to repeat header rows using the following steps

Correct way to Repeat Header Rows

Select only the table rows you want to repeat when table extends to next page
Go to Layout tab and select “Repeat Header Rows”

If problems persists, try the remaining methods

Problem #3: Page break before setting

Ms Word has a feature that allow you to start text, table or any object always at top of the page by automatically adding page break. This feature is beneficial in many occasions. However, enabling this option knowingly or unknowingly can create unwanted formatting issues which is hard to detect. The biggest problem here is that Ms Word don’t show page break it has inserted even when show/hide formatting option is enabled.

Solution: Remove “Page break before” setting

Select the entire table
Go to Home tab and open Paragraph options by clicking at the arrow at the bottom right corner of paragraph group

open advance paragraph settings — open paragraph setting

Go to “Line and Page Breaks” tab of Paragraph window
Uncheck the box against “Page break before” and click ok

setting to remove page break before option — Setting to remove page break before option

If the above method doesn’t work, you may try method 4

Problem #4: “Keep with next” option turned on for table

Solution: Turn off “keep with next” option for table

Select the entire table
Open Paragraph options by going to Home tab and clicking at the arrow at the bottom right corner of paragraph group
In “Line and Page Break” tab and uncheck “Keep with next” option and click OK

Disable "keep with next" option of paragraph setting — disable keep with next option

Video showing all four solutions

Video demonstrating all 4 problems

Conclusion

The following 4 settings of Ms Word can help you prevent table starting on next page

Enable “move with text” option
Correct use of “Repeat row header”
Turning off “Page break before” setting
Turning off “keep with next” setting

C P Gupta

C P Gupta is a YouTuber and Blogger. He is expert in Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. His YouTube channel @pickupbrain is very popular and has crossed 9.9 Million Views.