How can I keep a heading with the paragraph that follows it?

Select the heading paragraph, open the Paragraph dialog, and find the Line and Page Breaks tab. Turn on Keep with next. In Word for Microsoft 365, Word 2024, 2021, and 2019, this setting keeps that paragraph with the one that follows it; the support guidance also describes the option for Word 2016. [S1] [S2]

Select the heading paragraph itself, rather than just a few words in it. The control applies to a paragraph, so selecting the whole heading paragraph is the straightforward way to keep it attached to the next paragraph.

Look in the paragraph’s pagination settings: Word’s guidance places Keep with next under Paragraph > Line and Page Breaks, with one article labeling the section Pagination. [S1] [S2] If the dialog is open but the option is not visible, check that you are in the Line and Page Breaks area.

The settings do different jobs. Keep with next links a paragraph to the paragraph after it, which addresses a heading separated from its opening paragraph. Keep lines together prevents one paragraph from splitting across pages. Page break before forces a new page before the selected paragraph. [S1] For your case, start with Keep with next on the heading; use Page break before only if you want the heading to start a new page.

That movement may be expected: these controls adjust automatic pagination, and Word’s support guidance says to inspect the resulting layout because content may move to another page. [S1] Review the pages around the heading after changing the setting. If the arrangement is still awkward, check whether another paragraph setting or an intentional page break is affecting the layout.

Repeated blank lines are a fragile way to manage page placement. Word’s guidance advises against adding extra line breaks between paragraphs for spacing because Word treats each line break as a new paragraph and page breaks may not occur properly. [S2] Remove the extra blank paragraphs, apply the pagination setting to the heading, and review the result again. The exact layout can depend on the document, so check your own file rather than assuming the same page count.

Suppose your draft contains:

Project update

The team reviewed the schedule and listed the next steps.

Select the Project update heading paragraph and enable Keep with next. Leave the following paragraph as a separate paragraph. Then inspect the pages where that heading appears: it should stay with its following paragraph, though other content may move to make room. [S1] Avoid inserting several empty paragraphs between the heading and its text to force the placement. [S2]

For a quick review, check each heading near a page bottom, confirm it is attached to the intended next paragraph, and scan for unwanted large gaps or moved content. If a paragraph itself is split awkwardly, consider whether Keep lines together is the relevant control for that paragraph; it is not a substitute for linking the heading to what follows. [S1]