Try the example, then check the result.
Download the fictional material and follow the steps below. The video uses English illustrative diagrams; it does not present a live app recording. Product controls may vary by version.
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The video uses English illustrative diagrams; it does not present a live app recording. English captions. Product menus may differ in your account.
Quick answer. In a Pages-format Google Doc, place the cursor in the heading and choose Format > Line and paragraph spacing > Keep with next. Check that the heading and following paragraph occupy the same page.
Use the fictional practice file and independent answer check. Work in a permitted copy.
Before you start. Keep with next is available in Docs Pages format, not Pageless. Pagination can still change when margins, font size, or earlier content changes, so verify the final document view.
1. Identify the broken page break
In the fictional brief, Materials Checklist sits alone at the bottom of one page while its first body paragraph begins on the next. The target is not a fixed page number; it is keeping those two paragraphs together wherever they fit. Record the body sentence before changing layout.
Checkpoint: Heading and next paragraph are split.
2. Confirm the document uses Pages
Open the document's page setup and confirm Pages rather than Pageless. Google's paragraph-format help says Keep with next is unavailable in Pageless documents. If the document is Pageless, change format only if page-based layout is actually required for this practice copy; otherwise a page-break problem does not apply.
Checkpoint: Pages format is active for this exercise.
3. Apply Keep with next to the heading
Put the cursor in the Materials Checklist heading paragraph. Open Format, then Line and paragraph spacing, and choose Keep with next. This ties the heading to the following paragraph for pagination. Do not choose Keep lines together for this particular split; that keeps lines within one paragraph together.
Checkpoint: Keep with next applied to heading.
4. Inspect the new page boundary
Read the page where the heading now appears. It may move with the body paragraph to the next page, which is a successful result. If the two still separate, check that the command was applied to the heading itself and that a manual page break is not forcing an unexpected boundary.
Checkpoint: Heading and first body paragraph share a page.
5. Verify text and layout together
The first paragraph must still say Bring two pens and one printed room map. Do not delete or shorten the text just to hide the page issue. A future font, margin, or preceding-content change may alter pagination, so review the final Pages view before exporting or printing.
Checkpoint: Exact body sentence remains unchanged.
Verify the result
The Materials Checklist heading and its first paragraph, 'Bring two pens and one printed room map,' appear together on the same page. The paragraph text stays unchanged. Keep with next is applied to the heading paragraph; Keep lines together is a different control and is not the primary fix for a heading separated from its next paragraph.
If it still does not work
If the heading still sits alone, select the heading paragraph itself and confirm the document uses Pages format. Inspect any blank paragraph or manual page break between the heading and body, then check the final pagination again.
Official sources
- Control Google Docs paragraph pagination (checked 26 October 2026).
Any video panel without a marked actual-app capture is an illustrative diagram of the fictional exercise.
Practice downloads.
The exercise files contain invented information. Save a local copy before editing.