Managing Section Breaks in Word 2010

A section break indicates to Microsoft Word that you are modifying the page layout from that point forward. You can think of section breaks as road signs telling Word where to change direction. For instance, court briefs do not generally have page numbering on the title page, but may have Roman numeral numbering in the Table of Contents and Table of Authorities, as well as Arabic numbering at the beginning of the brief. In this example, you would need to use section breaks to tell Word: “Place no page numbering in the Title section, use Roman Numeral numbering in the TOA and TOC section, and then use Arabic numbering in the brief section.”

At the bottom of the page, just prior to the “change” in page numbering, you would need to place a Next Page Section Break. In the example mentioned above, place the break at the bottom of your title page, and again at the bottom of the final page in your Tables of Contents and Table of Authorities. This creates a three-section document.

The Next Page Section Break is most commonly used in legal documents, and contains not only a section break, but a page break as well. The built-in page break is required so the next page/section can begin a different page layout feature. This is the only type of section break we will delve into in this column.

The Continuous Section Break is most often used when creating columns. This break does not contain a page break.

Odd and Even Section Breaks are often used in a book layout, where the chapter name may be located on even pages and the page numbering on the odd pages. This break does contain a page break.

Reviewing a Document with Section Breaks

1. Determine which section your cursor is currently resting in, right-click Word's status bar and click Section. At the far left of the status bar you will see the section number.

2. Turn on the Show/Hide feature (non-printing characters). Word displays where the section break was set and what type of break it is.

3. Rather than scrolling through a document to determine where the section breaks have been set, use Word's handy Select Browse Object feature. This is located at the bottom of the Vertical Scroll Bar and changes the functionality of the Previous and Next Page navigational arrows. Click the round button and choose Browse by Section.

Hint: To change the navigational arrows back to the default page, simply choose the Browse by Page icon.

4. When changing headers and footers, whether it is the text or page numbering, there are two very important pieces of information of which to be aware: 1) in which header or footer section is the cursor resting?; and 2) will this header or footer section contain the same data as the previous section?

Hint: To view the next or previous section while working in a header or footer, simply click the Next or Previous buttons. This saves time so you will not need to scroll through the document.

Setting New Section Breaks

In an ideal world, you would have a final paragraph marker below the last line of text on the page where you plan to insert the Next Page Section Break. This gives you a nice clear visual of where the section break lives. However, there are times when you are lucky just to get all of your text to fit on one page, and pressing Enter for a final paragraph is not in the cards. You can still insert the section break at the end of the line of text, but it will be more difficult to see the section break marker than if you had inserted it on a line by itself. Here are some other tips for using the Section Break feature.

Set the break. Click at the bottom of the page, and from the Page Layout tab, choose Breaks from the Page Setup group and click Next Page under Section Breaks. Now you should see the section break mark, and a new page has been created to begin a new type of page layout.

Change data in the next header or footer section. Double click in the header or footer where your new text or page numbering begins. (Note the important pieces of information mentioned above.) Click the Link to Previous button in the Design tab of your headers and footers. This will “unlink” the data between sections and you will no longer see Same as Previous like you did prior to clicking the Link to Previous button. Make the appropriate changes for this section.

Hint: Headers and footers function independently from each other. For example, by unlinking your footer, your header will still be linked until you unlink it.

Delete a section break. Deleting a section break is as easy as clicking on the section break mark and pressing Delete.

Know this. When you delete a section break, the deleted break's data moves into the previous section. So if Section 1 contained the word “Draft,” and Section 2 contained the word “Final,” deleting the section break between them will cause everything in Section 1 to read “Final.”

Conclusion

Take the time to get some training or a brief tutorial on how to set section breaks; or maybe this column has already provided you with the information you need to manage the types of legal documents you produce. Section breaks are a very core feature of Word that do not need to be a mystery to the beginner. And finally, don't put the “break” in section breaks ' be sure to make a copy of your file prior to tinkering with it.

Having a firm grasp on how to handle section breaks is crucial when composing legal documents. Section breaks are what allow you to set varying headers/footers, page numbering formats, paper orientation, vertical alignment, and more throughout a document.

This column provides an overview of section breaks, how to examine existing section breaks, and setting new section breaks.

What Exactly Are Section Breaks?

A section break indicates to Microsoft Word that you are modifying the page layout from that point forward. You can think of section breaks as road signs telling Word where to change direction. For instance, court briefs do not generally have page numbering on the title page, but may have Roman numeral numbering in the Table of Contents and Table of Authorities, as well as Arabic numbering at the beginning of the brief. In this example, you would need to use section breaks to tell Word: “Place no page numbering in the Title section, use Roman Numeral numbering in the TOA and TOC section, and then use Arabic numbering in the brief section.”

At the bottom of the page, just prior to the “change” in page numbering, you would need to place a Next Page Section Break. In the example mentioned above, place the break at the bottom of your title page, and again at the bottom of the final page in your Tables of Contents and Table of Authorities. This creates a three-section document.

The Next Page Section Break is most commonly used in legal documents, and contains not only a section break, but a page break as well. The built-in page break is required so the next page/section can begin a different page layout feature. This is the only type of section break we will delve into in this column.

The Continuous Section Break is most often used when creating columns. This break does not contain a page break.

Odd and Even Section Breaks are often used in a book layout, where the chapter name may be located on even pages and the page numbering on the odd pages. This break does contain a page break.

Reviewing a Document with Section Breaks

1. Determine which section your cursor is currently resting in, right-click Word's status bar and click Section. At the far left of the status bar you will see the section number.

2. Turn on the Show/Hide feature (non-printing characters). Word displays where the section break was set and what type of break it is.

3. Rather than scrolling through a document to determine where the section breaks have been set, use Word's handy Select Browse Object feature. This is located at the bottom of the Vertical Scroll Bar and changes the functionality of the Previous and Next Page navigational arrows. Click the round button and choose Browse by Section.

Hint: To change the navigational arrows back to the default page, simply choose the Browse by Page icon.

4. When changing headers and footers, whether it is the text or page numbering, there are two very important pieces of information of which to be aware: 1) in which header or footer section is the cursor resting?; and 2) will this header or footer section contain the same data as the previous section?

Hint: To view the next or previous section while working in a header or footer, simply click the Next or Previous buttons. This saves time so you will not need to scroll through the document.

Setting New Section Breaks

In an ideal world, you would have a final paragraph marker below the last line of text on the page where you plan to insert the Next Page Section Break. This gives you a nice clear visual of where the section break lives. However, there are times when you are lucky just to get all of your text to fit on one page, and pressing Enter for a final paragraph is not in the cards. You can still insert the section break at the end of the line of text, but it will be more difficult to see the section break marker than if you had inserted it on a line by itself. Here are some other tips for using the Section Break feature.

Set the break. Click at the bottom of the page, and from the Page Layout tab, choose Breaks from the Page Setup group and click Next Page under Section Breaks. Now you should see the section break mark, and a new page has been created to begin a new type of page layout.

Change data in the next header or footer section. Double click in the header or footer where your new text or page numbering begins. (Note the important pieces of information mentioned above.) Click the Link to Previous button in the Design tab of your headers and footers. This will “unlink” the data between sections and you will no longer see Same as Previous like you did prior to clicking the Link to Previous button. Make the appropriate changes for this section.

Hint: Headers and footers function independently from each other. For example, by unlinking your footer, your header will still be linked until you unlink it.

Delete a section break. Deleting a section break is as easy as clicking on the section break mark and pressing Delete.

Know this. When you delete a section break, the deleted break's data moves into the previous section. So if Section 1 contained the word “Draft,” and Section 2 contained the word “Final,” deleting the section break between them will cause everything in Section 1 to read “Final.”

Conclusion

Take the time to get some training or a brief tutorial on how to set section breaks; or maybe this column has already provided you with the information you need to manage the types of legal documents you produce. Section breaks are a very core feature of Word that do not need to be a mystery to the beginner. And finally, don't put the “break” in section breaks ' be sure to make a copy of your file prior to tinkering with it.