WD98: What Happens When You Delete a Section Break

• Microsoft Word 98 Macintosh Edition

SUMMARY

When you delete a section break in Microsoft Word, you may receive unexpected results.

This article describes what happens when you delete a section break within a Word document. Throughout this article, keep in mind that a section break acts as an embedded code that stores or maintains the properties of the section above it.

MORE INFORMATION

When you work with section breaks, you should display non-printing characters. To do this, follow these steps:

1. On the Tools menu, click Preferences, and then click the View tab.

2. Under Non Printing Characters, click to select ALL.

3. Click OK.

Determining the Type of Section Break

In Word 98 Macintosh Edition, the type of section Break is shown on your screen, in parenthesis, after the words Section Break. This is not where the properties of that section break are stored. The properties for the type of section break indicated on the screen are stored in the next section break (which may have a different type of section break indicated). If there are no additional section breaks in your document, the properties for that section break are stored in the last paragraph mark of the document. The section breaks act as an embedded code that stores or maintains the properties of the section above it.

For Example, if you have a one-page document and half way down the page, you insert an Odd Page Section Break and then further into your document on Page 1, you insert a Next Page Section Break, in normal view, you will see the following:

   Section Break (Odd Page)


   Section Break (Next Page)

If you place the insertion point between Section Break (Odd Page) and Section Break (Next Page), the Status Bar will show: Page 3 Sec 2. To see the actual properties for the second section, on the Format menu, click Document and then click the Layout tab. Under Section Start, Word will indicate that the section is Odd Page. The settings for this section break are stored in the section break below where your insertion point is located or as shown on the screen, Section Break (Next Page).

If you place the insertion point below Section Break (Next Page), the Status Bar will show: Page 4 Sec 3. To see the actual properties for the third section, on the Format menu, click Document and then click the Layout tab. Under Section Start, Word will indicate that the section is New Page. The settings for this section break are stored in the last paragraph mark of the document (because there are no more section breaks in the document).

NOTE: A section break indicated on your screen as Next Page will be defined as New Page on the Layout tab of the Page Setup dialog box.

This means that if you delete the last section break shown on the screen as Section Break (Next Page), the formatting of section 2 (Odd Page) will change to the formatting of section 3 (Next Page); therefore, the odd page section is gone and on the screen, the Section Break (Next Page) is correctly shown. In effect the Odd Page section break was deleted and the attributes of the last section (Next Page) were applied to the information above the deleted section break.

Deleting a Section Break

When you delete a section break, you also delete the section formatting for the text above it. That text becomes part of the section that follows it, and it assumes the formatting of that section.

To delete a section break, follow these steps:

1. On the View menu, click Normal.

   The section break is represented by a double dotted line with the words "Section Break (Type)" in the center.

2. Select the section break, press the DELETE key to remove the section break.

   ARTICLE-ID: Q141993
   TITLE     : General Information About Section Breaks