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I am often writing bulleted lists in word documents. They are always preceded by an introductory paragraph with a colon at the end of it. I would like to force the list to stick with the previous paragraph and I would like it to be automatic throughout the document 'cause I've got a lot of them.

Exemple:

Here is a list of important points: - First point; - Second point; - Last point.

There should never be a page break between those lines. I can easily force the bulleted points to stay together ('keep with next' option, with a specific style for bulleted points), but I don't know how to tell them to stay with the previous paragraph (Normal style).

Is there a way to achieve this without using a macro ?

Thanks, Mathieu.

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Mark the previous paragraph - the one that you want the bulleted points to be associated with - as Keep with next in the Paragraph formatting. On your ribbon, click on the little icon in the lower-right corner of the paragraph section, then click on the tab marked Line and Page Breaks, and turn on the KWN check box.

(You can always create a new style for "Bullet Point Headers", based on the normal paragraph style, and just add "keep with next" to the style as above, then apply the new style to the appropriate paragraphs.)

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  • Thank for answer. Not exactly what I was looking for, but it sounds like an acceptable workaround 'til MS implements a 'keep with previous' option. – math3006 Aug 9 '17 at 14:25
  • Functionally, I don't see a difference between the two; it's just a question of which paragraph gets the format. – Jeff Zeitlin Aug 9 '17 at 14:28
  • It means that you have to create and apply 2 specific styles when using a bulleted list instead of one with a hypothetical 'keep with previous' option. – math3006 Aug 9 '17 at 14:43
  • Not necessarily; there's an option in a style definition for the style to be applied to the next paragraph - so if you set the bullet point header style's Style for following paragraph to the actual bulleted list style, all you do is set the style once at the header, and the next style will automatically be assumed and applied. – Jeff Zeitlin Aug 9 '17 at 14:46
  • I like that, didn't think of using this option that way. Thanks! I sometimes add a paragraph between the "Bullet Point Header" paragraph and the "Bulleted list" paragraph. That new paragraph then should become the "Bullet Point Header" instead of the previous one, which should then be reset to "Normal". A bit more manipulations, but not really annoying. – math3006 Aug 9 '17 at 14:57
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"keep with previous" and "keep with next" is not the same. Presuming that both paragraphs have a considerable length, "keep with previous" would hold the second paragraph together linked to the first, allowing the first to be normally treated and broken in a normal way at a page-break (that would be nice for special concluding lines, which should stick to the previous paragraph to which they belong to). "Keep with next" makes the first paragraph stick together linked to the second and avoiding page-breaks, while the second one is treated as normal an broken in a normal way at the next page-break (that's for headlines). there would be a third option possible, also not available in word: like "keep both together" which would be no page-break at the paragraph-break between both, but two lines before or two lines after the paragraph-break. the forth possibility like "hold both as a whole together" with no page-break in both paragraphs is easily achieved by marking both paragraphs as "hold paragraph together" and the first one as "keep with next".

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