what are widow/orphan characters?

[Keego]

pertaining to typing into Word or excel/etc. What are these characters?

 

[kranky]

They refer to lines of text, not characters. The term widow describes the first line of a paragraph that appears at the bottom of a column, and orphan refers to the last line of a paragraph that appears at the top of a column.

 

[Keego]

Example? Screenshot? I'm so confused

 

[Viper GTS]

Imagine you have three columns of text, and three paragraphs.

The first paragraph takes up all but the last line of the first column. The first line of the second paragraph is at the bottom of the first column. That is a widow.

The second paragraph completely fills the second column, & takes the first line of the third column. That is an orphan.

Viper GTS

 

[Keego]

Thanks, I finally realize. How stupid.