How Do I Delete A Section Break In Word



Section Break In Word 2010

  1. How Do I Delete A Section Break In Word 2016
  2. Can't Delete Section Break
  3. How Do I Delete A Section Break In Word 2010
  4. How Do I Delete A Section Break In Word 2016

Section breaks in Microsoft Word 2010 can be a godsend if you need to perform any of the following tasks:

How to remove or delete a continuous section break in Microsoft Office Word. The continuous section break can be pretty tricky to remove. If your break app. Delete a section break It’s easier to find and delete a section break when you turn on Show/Hide. Click Home, and then click Show/Hide to show section breaks and paragraph marks. To delete a section break, scroll until you see it. Select the section break by dragging from its left edge all the way to the right edge. If you need to delete a page break, you must turn off Track Changes, delete the break (make sure you're in Normal view), and enable Track Changes when you're done. To quickly disable and enable. You must - must - must - must - must (did I say must) turn on Show/Hide characters to do this because you need to see what you’re doing. Left-click in the margin to select the continuous break (as shown above).

  • use page numbering that starts at 1 for each section of your document (for example, different chapters in the same document).
  • display text in two columns for only a portion of your document and then return to the default one column afterwards.
  • display different header and footer information for different parts of your document.

Section breaks divide a document up into different sections, thus allowing you to apply different formatting or layout options to those sections.

To Insert A Section Break

To insert a section break in your document, click Page Layout > Page Setup > Breaks. The following panel is split up into page breaks and section breaks.

There are several kind of section breaks we can insert, and a description of each follows.

Next Page Section Break

The Next Page section break starts a new page and starts the new section on the new page. This section break is useful when you want to start new chapters in your document.

Continuous Section Break

A Continuous Section Break doesn’t start a new page so you can actually have several breaks on the same page. You would use a continuous break if you wanted different kinds of formatting on the same page, for example one section of the page displaying in two columns and the rest in one.

Even Or Odd Page Section Break

Inserting an Even or Odd Page Section break inserts the section break and then starts the new section on the next odd or even numbered page. Those people wanting their new chapters to always start on an odd or even page should use this option.

In addition to inserting section breaks where you need them as you are typing your document, you can also select text and insert section breaks around that text. The method is the same, and you use the same options on the section break menu.

Deleting A Section Break

When you delete a section break, the text preceding the break adopts the formatting of the section that followed the break. Note that you can’t see section breaks in the default Print Layout view. To see section breaks, it’s a good idea to switch to Draft view by clicking View > Document Views > Draft. This view shows section breaks as double dotted lines and displays the type of section break present.

To delete a section break, click on the double dotted line and then press the delete key.

I have to start each new section of my document on the top of the page. Then I have to remove any section breaks that create large gaps of white space. If I remove the breaks, it changes the formatting of the category heading. How do I reapply the Heading 2 style?

Submitted by Anonymous

ANSWER: There are two ways to insert page breaks in Microsoft Word: manually insert a page break, or modify a style to start on a new page. I’ll show you how to insert a manual page break, then show you how to delete the white space without breaking your layout.

Inserting page breaks

Follow these steps to insert the page breaks:

How Do I Delete A Section Break In Word 2016

  1. Open your document, then insert the cursor at the end of the line before the section you want to start on a new page.
  2. In the ribbon on the Insert tab, find the Page group.
  3. Click Page Break.
  4. Repeat this process for each section.

Once you are finished, you may need to do some additional clean up on your document.

Removing white space

As you can see in this sample document, there is a big chunk of white space that needs to be removed after creating the new page. This is most likely caused by improper use of carriage returns, tabs, and spaces to format the document.

You need to delete the breaks that are causing layout problems. The only way to delete the breaks without accidentally changing your formatting is to be able to see what you’re doing.

Press Ctrl + * (Ctrl + Shift + 8). This activates the Show All toggle.

Now we see why the second section is located too far down the page! There are three extra line breaks, a section break, over two lines of tabs, and a bunch of spaces that were inserted with the space bar.

This is very common so it is good to know how to fix the problem.

Delete

First, look at the two headings. Do you see the blue paragraph symbol after each one? That is where the style information for the heading is stored. If you cut and paste the text, make sure to keep the style information with it or you will lose your formatting. In other words, highlight the whole line including the hidden character before you cut or copy.

Now you can carefully delete all of the extra characters. Highlight all of them, then press Delete on you keyboard.

Press Ctrl + * to Hide All.

Your document should look like the following:

If you need to reapply Heading 2, follow these steps:

  1. Highlight the heading text or insert your cursor within the text.
  2. On the Home tab, in the Styles group, click Heading 2.
  3. Press Ctrl + S to save.

Now you have a nice clean document.

Comments

(These comments were from a previous commenting system. If you want to add to the discussion, use the comment box at the bottom of the page. Thanks!)

Word 2007
by: Aretha

Thank you so much you are a life saver. I understand the text better now.

You’re Welcome!
by: Sue

I’m glad this helped you. Good luck with your document!

White space
by: Linda

Ive done as you suggested – there are no formatting marks to see. Still can’t get rid of large white space under header.

Can’t Delete White Space – Hidden Table or Style?
by: Sue

Linda: It sounds like you might have either a hidden table or a paragraph style that is causing the trouble.

If you hover over the heading text, does a small box with a plus sign appear on the top left? If so, click it. It will highlight the hidden table.

The easiest way to work with a hidden table is to show the borders. Here’s how:

  1. With the table still highlighted, right-click.
  2. Select Borders and Shading from the menu. The Borders and Shading dialog box opens.
  3. On the Borders tab, select All.
  4. Click OK.

Once you can see the table borders, you can drag the cell border to shrink the row that is causing the white space below the heading.When you are finished, follow the same directions as above, but on the Borders tab, select None.

If a table is not the culprit, then the white space may be set in the Paragraph settings.

Here is how to fix it:

  1. Place the cursor in the heading.
  2. On the Home tab, in the Paragraph group, click the little arrow in the lower right corner to launch the Paragraph dialog box.
  3. On the Indents and Spacing tab, under Spacing, change the After setting.

If the After spacing is already set to zero or a low number and changing it doesn’t get rid of the white space, place the cursor in the following sentence, then repeat the instructions. Only this time, change the Before spacing.

Can't Delete Section Break

I hope this helps! If not, I can troubleshoot the actual document for you. Use my contact form to get in touch with me.

Extra Whitespace Below Header – Fixes Continued
by: Sue

To continue with Linda’s problem, there is an issue that can cause excess whitespace between the page header and the first line of text in your document.This has to do with how you have set your page margins and your header margins.

For instance, if your top margin is set to 1.25″ and your header margin is set to .25″, you will have almost an inch of whitespace below your header.

First, check to see what your top page margin is set to. Then check your header margins. To do this, double-click inside the header to activate it, then follow these steps:

  1. On the Header & Footer Tools Design tab, find the Position Group.
  2. Change the Header from Top setting.
  3. Click Close Header and Footer.

Hopefully one of these fixes works for you!

large white space under header
by: Anonymous

I’ve had this problem. If you double-click on the white space it opens the header for editing. But it’s only on some of the pages. If you pull on the header marker in the left ruler to shrink the size of the header, the header bottom bounces down to the footer, overlapping the body text. It’s weird. I think it’s a software bug.

How Do I Delete A Section Break In Word 2010

White space under header
by: Charlotte

I have this exact same problem – random white spaces under the header, different on different pages, same section – it’s sending me insane! No marks, nothing’s there, only it’s pushing the text right down and it looks stupid.

No idea what to do :o(

Random solution
by: Charlotte

I actually managed to get rid of mine, somewhat randomly, by deleting page breaks and carriage returns that appear at the end of the paragraph/section where the weird white space appears above. It just clicked back into where it should be – two incidents.Hope it works for someone else too, maybe?Charlotte

Style that starts on new page
by: Anonymous

One solution was to modify a style to start on a new page, but there were no instructions for that in the article.

Modify Styles to Start on a New Page
by: Sue

Thanks for the heads up Anon. Here is the link to that page: Modify Styles to Start on a New Page

My documents show all the line returns and spaces between words
by: Anonymous

How do I eliminate these characters when I view my document. I have no confidence that it will be submitted on-line without seeing these characters.

How Do I Delete A Section Break In Word 2016

Toggle off Formatting Marks
by: Sue

Hi Anon: To turn off formatting marks, press Ctrl+* (In other words, press Ctrl+Shift+8 all at the same time).

Fix to huge space in header
by: Daniel

OK, so I was having the same problem where, after inserting a page break, a huge amount of space was in the header, for no apparent reason, with no marks nor anything else. So after going crazy for a while, I figured out the solution. If you go to page layout > page setup. In the layout tab, where it says Page. Make sure it is not in anything other that top. I had it in Centered, so everytime I inserted a page break, the text would appeared centered. So change this option, and problem fixed.

Sanity Saved by “Fix to huge space in header NEW by: Daniel “
by: Eliz

Daniel is a genius. This was driving me CRAZY. Page layout, Page vertical alignment fixed my issue. YEA!

Thanks, Daniel!
by: Sue

Daniel…thanks for your input. It is obvious you aren’t the only one who has run into a vertical alignment problem! I always appreciate it when my readers add their tips and fixes. Thanks so much!

I have lost my page breaks!
by: karen

For some reason while I am in the middle of my dissertation, working with microsoft office 2003 at home and 2007 in uni, I have lost all page breaks and my work looks like one continuous piece of paper. What can I do?

Hiding or Showing White Space Between Pages
by: Sue

Hi Karen: Make sure you are in Print Layout View and not Draft view. (These options are located on the View tab.) In Print Layout View, there should be a thin gray line between pages. Hover your mouse over it until you see an icon that shows two arrows facing each other. Once you see that icon, double-click. The white space between the pages should reappear. This is a toggle, you can repeat the process to hide the white space again.

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