Sounds like you've got a style set in the document, but direct
formatting applied to the text.  A blank paragraph may have escaped
the directly-applied formatting and so retain the original style which
doesn't look at all like your formatting changes.  You should be able
to apply a style to your text and have it look exactly as you want.

If you *really* want to learn more (and if you are going to do much
with Word, you _do_ want to learn more!), try going here:
http://word.mvps.org/tutorials/freetoaccess.htm
and download the Word Legal Guide.  It's got an entire section devoted
to Styles.

Ed