Managing Section Breaks in Microsoft Word

You're preparing a Word document and it just doesn't look right. The page numbering is off, Headers and Footers aren't on the correct pages or in the desired location, just a few lines of text seem to be vertically centered on the page yet there are no Hard Returns in sight. Wide tables are cut off on the right, and you're having a heck of a time placing your text in columns.

It sounds like your document is the victim of bad or no Section Breaks. And while one can spend an entire training session covering Section Breaks, Headers/Footers, Page Numbering, etc. (and I highly recommend doing so), it can help to manage Section Breaks if you know a little about them to begin with.

Why Use Section Breaks?

Each time you want to make a change in your page layout, be it a change in page numbering, a change in Headers and Footers, columns, a landscape printed page within a portrait orientated document, or a vertically centered title ' you'll need to insert a Section Break.

Word provides two different types of Section Breaks, “Next Page” and “Continuous.” The Next Page Section Break is really a combination of a new Section and Page Break. This type is used for changing Header and Footer and/or page numbering schemes throughout the document, printing one page with a wide landscape orientation, and vertically centering text on one page without resorting to banging the Enter key 16 or 17 times just to move the text down to where you believe it appears centered between top and bottom margins.

Continuous Section Breaks are generally used for turning on and off columns within a document. These columns may span many pages, with the columns being turned on and off throughout the document. In this case, it isn't necessary to start a new page just to turn on or off columns ' thus no need for a Next Page Section Break.

How Can I Tell in Which Section I Am Working?

In Word 2003 and lower, the Status Bar in the Word application has an area that reflects in which section your cursor currently resides. With Office 2007 and 2010, you'll need to right-click the Status Bar and choose “Section” to display that information in the Status Bar.

How Can I Tell How Many Sections Are in My Document?

There's a trick for this one. Hold down the Control (Ctrl) key on the keyboard and lightly tap the End key on the keyboard. This quickly takes you to the very end of the document. Look in the bottom left side of the Status Bar to see the number of the very last Section in the document.

Is There a Quick Way to Get From One Section to the Next?

There sure is. Word 2000 and higher has a great navigational feature called “Select Browse Object.” It is located in the lower right corner of the Word application window. You may be familiar with the two black arrowheads that allow you to browse to the Previous and Next pages. However, the button in the middle holds an array of objects you can choose from for those arrowheads to browse to.

Click the middle button, find “Browse by Section” and click. Notice the arrows turn blue? That means you are no longer using those arrows to browse by page, but that another object is in use. As you click the Previous and Next buttons, watch the Status Bar ' after a second or two it will update to tell you in which Section your cursor currently is.

When you've finished, click on “Browse by Page” to set those arrows back to the default of page navigation. You'll also see that the arrows are black once again, and not blue. Use this feature often ' it's a great way to get around your document.

Troubleshooting 101

No one likes to print unnecessarily, but if you're dealing with what you think may be bad Section Breaks, it often helps to print the file so you have something to refer to and make notes on while you're digging through the electronic file.

The first thing I do is make a note of how many Section Breaks are in the file, and where they've been placed. I've already covered both of those methods above.

It is often useful to simply remove all Section Breaks and put in fresh ones. This eliminates trying to troubleshoot not only Section Breaks, but Page Breaks as well. Always make a copy of the file that you're re-formatting and work with that. It will be easy enough to rename it once it's formatted properly.

Remove Existing Section Breaks

• Press Ctrl + Home to get to the top of your document.
• Press Ctrl + H to bring up the Find and Replace dialog.
• Click the More button.
• Click the Special button and choose Section Break. This places ^b (representing a Section Break) in the “Find what” field.
• Click in the “Replace with” field and don't type anything. This effectively tells Word to find all Section Breaks and replace them with nothing.

At this point you can click where you want a change to occur, and put in the correct Section Break type.

Conclusion

Honestly, Section Breaks (like Tabs) have a bad rap. In reality, once you understand them and use the features properly, your document will flow, and can be edited very effectively. Invest in a bit of training and save a lot of headaches.

You're preparing a Word document and it just doesn't look right. The page numbering is off, Headers and Footers aren't on the correct pages or in the desired location, just a few lines of text seem to be vertically centered on the page yet there are no Hard Returns in sight. Wide tables are cut off on the right, and you're having a heck of a time placing your text in columns.

It sounds like your document is the victim of bad or no Section Breaks. And while one can spend an entire training session covering Section Breaks, Headers/Footers, Page Numbering, etc. (and I highly recommend doing so), it can help to manage Section Breaks if you know a little about them to begin with.

Why Use Section Breaks?

Each time you want to make a change in your page layout, be it a change in page numbering, a change in Headers and Footers, columns, a landscape printed page within a portrait orientated document, or a vertically centered title ' you'll need to insert a Section Break.

Word provides two different types of Section Breaks, “Next Page” and “Continuous.” The Next Page Section Break is really a combination of a new Section and Page Break. This type is used for changing Header and Footer and/or page numbering schemes throughout the document, printing one page with a wide landscape orientation, and vertically centering text on one page without resorting to banging the Enter key 16 or 17 times just to move the text down to where you believe it appears centered between top and bottom margins.

Continuous Section Breaks are generally used for turning on and off columns within a document. These columns may span many pages, with the columns being turned on and off throughout the document. In this case, it isn't necessary to start a new page just to turn on or off columns ' thus no need for a Next Page Section Break.

How Can I Tell in Which Section I Am Working?

In Word 2003 and lower, the Status Bar in the Word application has an area that reflects in which section your cursor currently resides. With Office 2007 and 2010, you'll need to right-click the Status Bar and choose “Section” to display that information in the Status Bar.

How Can I Tell How Many Sections Are in My Document?

There's a trick for this one. Hold down the Control (Ctrl) key on the keyboard and lightly tap the End key on the keyboard. This quickly takes you to the very end of the document. Look in the bottom left side of the Status Bar to see the number of the very last Section in the document.

Is There a Quick Way to Get From One Section to the Next?

There sure is. Word 2000 and higher has a great navigational feature called “Select Browse Object.” It is located in the lower right corner of the Word application window. You may be familiar with the two black arrowheads that allow you to browse to the Previous and Next pages. However, the button in the middle holds an array of objects you can choose from for those arrowheads to browse to.

Click the middle button, find “Browse by Section” and click. Notice the arrows turn blue? That means you are no longer using those arrows to browse by page, but that another object is in use. As you click the Previous and Next buttons, watch the Status Bar ' after a second or two it will update to tell you in which Section your cursor currently is.

When you've finished, click on “Browse by Page” to set those arrows back to the default of page navigation. You'll also see that the arrows are black once again, and not blue. Use this feature often ' it's a great way to get around your document.

Troubleshooting 101

No one likes to print unnecessarily, but if you're dealing with what you think may be bad Section Breaks, it often helps to print the file so you have something to refer to and make notes on while you're digging through the electronic file.

The first thing I do is make a note of how many Section Breaks are in the file, and where they've been placed. I've already covered both of those methods above.

It is often useful to simply remove all Section Breaks and put in fresh ones. This eliminates trying to troubleshoot not only Section Breaks, but Page Breaks as well. Always make a copy of the file that you're re-formatting and work with that. It will be easy enough to rename it once it's formatted properly.

Remove Existing Section Breaks

• Press Ctrl + Home to get to the top of your document.
• Press Ctrl + H to bring up the Find and Replace dialog.
• Click the More button.
• Click the Special button and choose Section Break. This places ^b (representing a Section Break) in the “Find what” field.
• Click in the “Replace with” field and don't type anything. This effectively tells Word to find all Section Breaks and replace them with nothing.

At this point you can click where you want a change to occur, and put in the correct Section Break type.

Conclusion

Honestly, Section Breaks (like Tabs) have a bad rap. In reality, once you understand them and use the features properly, your document will flow, and can be edited very effectively. Invest in a bit of training and save a lot of headaches.