Cannot Stop Column Break from Formatting Itself

Question

This is probably best shown with pictures. I have a doc with 2 columns and the column break keeps coloring itself like the next column's header:

No matter what I do I either:

• Cannot remove formatting from break, OR
• I remove the formatting from both the break and the Jan 2026 header

This is driving me nuts. Can anyone please advise?

Answer 1

To add to what Doug and Charles have said, in older versions of Word, this used to happen with manual page breaks as well. Recent versions of Word avoid the problem by also adding a paragraph mark, when you insert a manual page break.

Of course, with regards to page breaks, there is another option: you can use "Page break before" formatting as an alternative. This possibility does not exist for column breaks.

Answer 2

Hi Charles,

While the Column Separator does not print, the shading applied to the paragraph that contains it (which is part of the first paragraph at the top of the column following the column break) does print.

Answer 3

Press the Enter key before the start of the text in the second column, remove the shading from the paragraph that is so created, and then format that paragraph so that it has no space before or after it and so that the line spacing is set to the exact figure of 1 pt as a result of which it will be barely visible.

Answer 4

Stefan did say, "This possibility does not exist for column breaks."

Answer 5

So the only solution is a workaround?

Yep!

I'm guessing that the column break is actually part of the first paragraph following it in Word structure.

The thing is, the break is a non-printing mark so the color is sort of irrelevant to the final result.

Doug knows more about the structure than I do, though.

Rather than using newspaper-style snaking columns, would a two-column borderless table suit your purposes?

Do you want Columns or a Table?