Creating Page Elements - Widows and Orphans

These terms relate to headings with nothing following on the bottom of a page (Widow) and totals at the top of a page (Orphan) and both are considered bad practice by form designers.

To illustrate, let's look at a within-page set if calculations as shown below:

Where this spans a page, we want at least one detail following the heading and at least one detail preceding a total. Let's assume the heights of the contents are (in 1/300th increments):

Heading 65
Detail 50
Total 60

The minimum record set is one each of Header, Detail and Total, however more detail records may be found in different forms.

This is how we set Widow/Orphan:

Header is set to Widow/Orphan of 175, being the three heights. If there is less than 175 left on the page, the entire set starts on the next page.

Detail is set to 110, being the height of Detail and Total. If there is less than 110 left on the page, this detail is printed on the next page.

Total is set to 0, as the preceding records have now accounted for the end of page correctly.

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