Why does the space contract when pressing 'Enter' at the next line?

Hi All,
In editing LibreOffice document the situation between the pages is displayed at the attachment office1.pngoffice1.png. The last line of previous page and the first line of the next page are in place.
But when ‘Enter’ is pressed at top of the next page, so as to push down those lines (green arrow), there is ‘space contraction’ (indicated by red arrow at the office2.png attachment - office2.png, attachedoffice2.png

I want to ask:

  1. Why this happens?

  2. How to prevent thid from happening? That is how can i make the last line of the previous page stay in place and not contract as shown in office2.png?

Thanks and Regards

RSP2

Share the file, not screenshots.

Without much information (View>Formatting Marks is not enabled), this is a little like guessing with a crystal ball.

But when ‘Enter’ is pressed at top of the next page,

When you press Enter, you terminate a paragraph and open a new one.

Consequently, the previous one is made of full lines plus a last partially filled one (preceding where you pressed Enter). It is traditional in typography to justify full lines, i.e. to enlarge spaces so that the words in this line extend from edge to edge. It is also traditional that the last line in a paragraph is not justified, i.e. spaces retain their “natural” width (not stretched).

This is why you see word “kept” slide to left because all preceding spaces have returned to their default width.

so as to push down those lines

Writer is not a typewriter where everything must be formatted by hand. Writer manages a main text flow made of paragraphs and sets them inside the text area of every page.

If I understand correctly your non-exposed goal, you’d like to have a larger top margin. In this case, modify the page style in effect for this set of pages and enlarge the margin(s). It will have effect without further human action on every page.

So here are my answers:

  • How to prevent “space contraction”?

    Put paragraph marks (Enter) only at end of paragraphs and let Writer do the job of formatting.

  • How to customise page appearance (margin et al.)?

    Tune your document page style(s).

  • Goodie: how to tune distance between paragraphs?

    Don’t use Enter which uselessly creates empty paragraphs. Instead, customise the paragraph styles you are using.

You’ll notice that I mentioned styles. Styles are the basis of Writer control. If you are not familiar with them, which is a fundamental requirement for nice document formatting, read the freely downloadable User Guide.

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