In addition to what Greg says (and his graphics are worth 1,000 words of
mine, no matter how simple), if you insist on using empty paragraphs to
create "blank lines," then you'll have to suppress line numbering in those
paragraphs (on the Line and Page Breaks tab of Format | Paragraph), but the
only efficient way to do that would be with a style, and if you're going to
learn to use styles, you might as well save time by learning to use a style
with Space Before or After.

--
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.

"Greg" wrote in message
ups.com...
Tom

See:
http://gregmaxey.mvps.org/Count_Lines_of_Text.htm
for an illustration on why your "blank" lines are being numbered.