Sometimes you really want to keep text together in Microsoft Word, such as not wanting a phone number to wrap in the middle or not wanting a paragraph to be split. There are a variety of ways to do this, depending on what you are trying to accomplish. These instructions are for Word 2003 but all options are available in Word 2007 as well.

To keep text together with a space (for example, first name and last name), use a hard space by holding down Ctrl-Shift and pressing the Spacebar.

To keep text together with a hyphen (for example, a date or phone number), use a hard hyphen by holding down Ctrl and pressing the - (minus) button. Note, no shift!
 
To keep a paragraph together as one unit, click with your mouse inside the paragraph you want to keep together, then click Format - Paragraph. Click the Line and Page Breaks tab, then check mark the box of Keep Lines Together. This means that when a page starts getting full, Word will move the whole paragraph to the next page (versus moving the last line of the paragraph to the next page).

To keep a paragraph with the next paragraph (like a section heading with the section text), select the first paragraph that you want to keep with the next paragraph (don't forget to select the first paragraph and the blank line if you have one between the heading and the text!) and click Format - Paragraph. Then click the Line and Page Breaks Tab, and check the box for Keep With Next. This ensures that a page break won't occur in the middle of your header and text (or between paragraphs you want to keep together). I use this ALL the time, especially when doing reports or designing forms for instance, where I don't want the question to break from the answer lines across a page.

IMPORTANT HELPFUL HINT: If you are ever having trouble with a Table Cell/Row staying together even when you have the table property of Allow Rows To Split Across Pages checked, it is probably because the text inside the cell has been formatted with Keep Lines Together or Keep With Next (and this is not always on purpose).

SECOND HELFUL HINT: Easiest way to check for this formatting? Click the Paragraph Marker button (looks like a backwards P on your standard toolbar, right next to the zoom drop down box). Your text will have a black box next to the beginning of the paragraph if one of these options is turned on. This view will also show you hard spaces (they look like circles instead of dots) and hard hyphens (they look like longer dashes versus a hyphen).

THIRD HELPFUL HINT: Like this formatting and want to repeat it in other places? Format Painter copies Keep with Next and Keep Lines Together formatting too!

You'll note that Widow/Orphan Control options are checked by default on the Line and Page Breaks Tab. Have you secretly always wondered what the heck that even means? Wonder no more! A widow is when you have the last line of a paragraph all by itself at the top of a page. An orphan is when you have the first line of a paragraph all by itself at the bottom of the page. Word moves a second line to be with that lone line (or moves the full paragraph if needed). I don't imagine anyone really wants to turn that option off. :)

So now, as Al Green would sing... "Let's stay together, Loving you whether, whether Times are good or bad, happy or sad..." Don't we all feel that way about Microsoft Office sometimes???