Microsoft Word - Formatting - Section Breaks

Section Breaks. 

As you fill a page, Word inserts a page break and starts a new page. When you add or delete text, this soft page break moves. The soft page break appears as a dotted grey line in the Normal view.
To start a new page before the current page is filled we will need to insert a hard page break that does not shift as you edit text.

The hard page break appears as a dotted grey line with the text Page Break centred in Normal view.

A section is a mini-document within a document that stores margin settings, page numbering, page orientation etc.

Types of Section Breaks. 

There are four different types of section breaks.

Next page: A next page section break will start the next section of the document on a new page. (use this if you require to create different headers and footers for different chapters).

Continuous: A continuous section break allows you to isolate text within a page. (good example of this is a newspaper effect using multiple columns, whereas by default Word is in one column spanning from the left to right margin.

Even Page: The even and odd page section breaks are used in documents with double-sided formatting.

An even page section break will start the section on the next even page (useful to ensure that the next chapter begins on a left hand page.

Odd Page: An odd page section break will start the section on the next odd page (useful to ensure that the next chapter begins on a right hand page.

Applying a Section Break.

1. Position the insertion point in the document.

2. Select the Page Layout tab from the ribbon.



3.      Click on Breaks.



4. Select the required Section Break.