To apply any of these settings, click the cursor anywhere in the paragraph, and then click the dialog launcher,, at the bottom right of the Paragraph group on the Home ribbon tab, or right-click and then select Paragraph.

Suppress line numbers: when line numbering is in force, ensures line numbers are not displayed on this paragraph.

Keep lines together: ensures the paragraph does not split across a page boundary.

Page break before: ensures the paragraph always starts on a new page.

Keep with next: ensures the paragraph is always on the same page as the following paragraph.

The square appears whenever one or more of the following are applied to a paragraph: I call this small black square the ‘Paragraph Properties Mark,’ although there would appear to be no evidence that this is the official Microsoft name for it. Nor will you find anything about it in the Microsoft Knowledge Base-normally a treasure trove of information. So, what does this small black square signify, and does its position relative to the paragraph text mean anything? Like so many features in Word, and probably in other Microsoft products, you won’t find anything about this black square in the Help files. Here’s how it appears if you press Ctrl+*, or click Show/Hide ¶ in the Paragraph group on the Home ribbon tab:

This was based on a question from a Perspective reader regarding the meaning of the small black square that Microsoft Word will display to the left of some paragraphs in a document when you have formatting marks turned on. In 2006, I wrote an article for my Wordman’s Production Corner series in the Perspective newsletter, published by the Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP), titled The Curse of the Black Spot. The small black square to the left of some paragraphs in a Microsoft Word document, aka the Paragraph Properties Mark, can tell you a lot about the formatting applied to those paragraphs.īy Dick Eassom, CF APMP Fellow (aka Wordman)

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