[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

When context-sensitive Help was removed from the app, it was a huge step
backward.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Mike Starr" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the link, Suzanne. I do find it shameful that this information
has never made it into the help file. It's been missing since Word 97
(possibly before but I wasn't skilled enough with previous versions to
know
what I was missing).

Best regards

Mike
"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
FWIW, there's a KB article that purports to explain the Compatibility
Options. Let me see if I can locate it...yes, here it is: "Description
of
the Compatibility options that are available in the Options dialog box
in
Word 2003, Word 2002, and Word 2000" at
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=288792.

Its description of the options you mention is as follows:

Suppress extra line spacing at top of page: This option prevents Word
from
adding extra line spacing at the top of a page. If the line spacing for
the
line at the top of a page is set for more than single spacing, Word
ignores
the extra spacing, so that the top margin does not increase.

Suppress extra line spacing at the top of page like Word 5.x for the
Mac:
This option prevents Word from adding extra line spacing at the top of a
page. If the line spacing for the line at the top of a page is set for
more
than single line spacing, Word ignores the extra spacing, so that the
top
margin does not increase.

Suppress extra line spacing like WordPerfect 5.x: This option ensures
that
the layout of a converted WordPerfect document that is formatted with
Automatic line height closely matches that of the original document.

Suppress Space Before after a hard page or column break: This option
suppresses the space in a paragraph formatted with the Space Before
option
that follows a hard page break or column break.

Note that "extra line spacing" is not the same as "Space Before." "Extra
line spacing" would be (as stated) anything other than Single: Double,
1.5
lines, Triple, At least, Exactly, or Multiple. Some of these spacing
settings result in space above text lines, some below, some split (see
the
Compatibility Option "Don't center 'exact line height' lines"), which is
why
it can be very tricky to mix Multiple spacing (including Double, Triple,
etc.) and "Exactly" spacing.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup
so
all may benefit.

"Mike Starr" wrote in message
...
I've always found it particularly frustrating that there is no
documentation
about what the distinction is between the various options...

Suppress extra line spacing at top of page
Suppress extra line spacing at top of page like Word 5.x for the Mac
Suppress extra line spacing at top of page like WordPerfect 5.x
Suppress Space Before after a hard page or column break

How the hell do I know what those mean?? And furthermore, how do I
know
what's going to happen when I make multiple selections (since they're
all
check boxes).

arggh

Mike
"John McGhie" wrote in message
...
snip
Word does have an option in teh Compatibility Options that allows
you
to
force it to sppress space above at the top of the page always. Be
careful
with that one: it can result in some strange effects, and you have
to
set
it
for each document.