Rich Shepard wrote: > I see. Always assumed it was an all-or-nothing issue. And, I never really > paid any attention to whether or not I've seen orphans and widows before. > This just stuck out.
It's very often a matter of taste, and compromise. Easy example: Consider preventing an orphan (i.e. moving the last line to the next page) means that the paragraphs on the next page (2) don't fit on that page anymore. Another page break must be inserted, which could mean either a widow on the new page (3) or an underfull page on the previous page (2) (because two lines are missing). Also it could expand your book by two pages, if a new chapter always starts at the right page. If you have a publisher who insists both on preventing widows and orphans and two have always "full pages" (always the same number of lines), the only possibility os often to rework the text to make the paragraphs shorter or longer. Jürgen
