In Word, how can you format a Page Break when you don't need one?

[The Bass Bagwhan]

So, working in Word, I have an inserted Page Break before a new chapter which incidentally falls on a new page anyway, the result being a blank page before the new chapter. If I delete that Page Break, and someone in a digital reader changes font size (or something) which repaginates the whole thing, it's likely I'll need that Page Break.
What can I do to avoid this? In other words, have the Page Break do its thing when needed, but not have a blank page when it isn't?

Thanks for any advice.

[TimothyEllis]

So, working in Word, I have an inserted Page Break before a new chapter which incidentally falls on a new page anyway, the result being a blank page before the new chapter. If I delete that Page Break, and someone in a digital reader changes font size (or something) which repaginates the whole thing, it's likely I'll need that Page Break.
What can I do to avoid this? In other words, have the Page Break do its thing when needed, but not have a blank page when it isn't?

You can't control that anyway.

It totally changes with the font and font size the reader uses.

So if they decrease the font, there is no blank page. If they increase the font, they get a blank page.

I just ignore it. I put a single blank line after the last sentence, then the page feed, then the next chapter heading. Sometimes it generates a blank page, sometimes it doesn't, but it isn't really a problem. And not something Amazon seems to care about.

[R. C.]

Bass,

This is what I do to solve the problem you describe. In the document, show the paragraph marks.

1) Make sure there are no extraneous lines leaking onto the new page.

2) At the end of the page with the text, after the last character, ensure you have a least one blank space BEFORE the page break.

3) If two fails, I will shorten a sentence on the page, to ensure a one space AND a newline BEFORE the page break.

These steps have worked for me, your mileage may vary.

R.C.

UPDATE

This just happened to me, in a WIP that came back from the editor, the above process worked with a catch. 

To correct the pagination error, I had to TURN OFF Track Changes.

R.C.

[Bill Hiatt]

I can see why this would be a problem for paperbacks, in which case R.C.'s solution should work. But for ebooks, Timothy is correct. There are too many variables we can't control to do page breaks in the same way.

It does cost some money, though it's a one-time purchase, but Vellum is a good way to avoid worrying about such things. It takes your text and lays it out appropriate for both ebooks and paperbacks automatically and in under a minute. No messing around with page breaks required.

It doesn't give total flexibility, but it has enough options to create a great many different formats, depending on your taste.

I'm a PC user who absolutely hates Macs. But I maintain the most inexpensive Macbook I could get just to use Vellum on it. Vellum is that good.

[Vijaya]

I format the paperback and kindle separately for this reason (and others as well). I do what RC says for the paperback. The kindle you cannot control because of the reader choosing the font, so I do what Tim does.

[Lynn]

If you're using headers, get rid of all the manual page breaks and extra lines at the end of your chapters and set a page break on the header in the header style. (That would usually be your header 1 if it's your chapter titles.) It will make the ebook have the header start on a new page every time but won't add in extra blank pages because of empty lines.

To get there, you choose the header style and right click, then choose modify, format, paragraph, line and page breaks, and check the box in front of "page break before."

You can also set this on non-header styles, so if you have a custom style for a front or backmatter item that you want to start a new page, that style can have this setting too.