Blogs

2014/01/06

 

Section Breaks are the powerful and often misunderstood tool for changing page layouts within your Word documents, so read on for a brief primer.

Need to USE DIFFERENT PAGE NUMBERING in part of your document?
Need a DIFFERENT HEADER OR FOOTER for part of your document?
Need to CHANGE FROM PORTRAIT TO LANDSCAPE in the middle of your document?
Need to ADD COLUMNS in the middle of your document?

YOU NEED SECTION BREAKS!

HOW THEY WORK
Section Breaks store the formatting for the section of text prior to the break. Once you've added your section breaks, then you can make the formatting changes in only one section of the document.

There are two types of section breaks used in legal documents - CONTINUOUS and NEXT PAGE.

NEXT PAGE SECTION BREAKS are used most often. Specifically, whenever you need to change formatting beginning with a new page, such as in a table of contents or a landscape table in the middle of a document. They function as both the section break and a page break.

CONTINUOUS SECTION BREAKS are used only when you need to change page formatting in the middle of a single page. For example, when you need line numbering or multiple columns in the middle of a page.

WHERE TO FIND THEM
A section break appears as two dotted lines with the words Section Break (Next Page) or Section Break (Continuous) in the middle as shown below. However, you must use Draft View or have Show/Hide turned on to see them. Click the button on the Home ribbon to turn on Show/Hide.

Not sure If you have multiple sections in your document? Go to the last page and double-click into the header or footer. The document with the footer shown has three sections.

Section breaks will sometimes hide at the end of a line of text. If you need to find each break in a document, press CTRL+H to bring up the Find and Replace dialog. Enter ^B in the Find what field and click the FIND NEXT button.

HOW TO INSERT BREAKS
The BREAKS button is found on the Page Layout ribbon. A section break is placed immediately before your cursor, so position your cursor accordingly and then click the button.

A FEW WORDS OF CAUTION

HEADER AND FOOTER CHANGES
There is a setting associated with headers and footers called LINK TO PREVIOUS. This default setting links multiple sections together, effectively treating them as one.

You'll see a Same as Previous indicator as shown below when your cursor is in the header or footer. Be sure to watch for it and turn it off before making edits to your headers and footers. Use the Link to Previous button on the Header & Footer Tools ribbon to toggle it on/off.

DELETING SECTION BREAKS
When you delete a section break, text before the break will merge with the text after the break and will take on the formatting of the section after the break. Be aware that you may have to do some reformatting when deleting section breaks.