How to delete paragraph marks (returns) without affecting spacing, like at the top of the next page

Question

if you have a large document and you add two returns at the end of every major section or group but one of the two returns goes to next page, how do you keep that return so it doesn't mess up spacing if something is added earlier in document but get rid
of it so the top of the page is the same as the other pages? I was wondering if there was something like a hidden return that would hide the paragraph at the top of the page but if more information was added before it, it would act like a regular return. Hope
this makes sense.
Also do you know what the paragraph maker with a dotted box around it is? I was trying to solve the above problem by trying different keys with the return key, e.g. control + return gives you a page break, shift + return gives you a soft return,
control + alt + return gives you this funky paragraph symbol that seems to erase lines in front of it at least it did when I printed out a page using them.

Answer 1

Thank you! I've never used Styles but have used the formatting. I just didn't want to have to go to the bottom of every page and change the paragraph formatting but format painter helped a lot. Thanks again.
You could also use a heading style for the start of your next major block of text which is formatted to have a page break before. Styles are at the heart of Word formatting. Take the time to learn about them to save a lot of time and hair pulling.
Read the
link that Stefan gave you. If you want more, see
Understanding Styles in Microsoft Word.
Charles Kenyon Madison, WI