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continous section break leaves a gap in my writing

Anonymous
2015-09-15T07:14:10+00:00

Help anyone.

I am placing section breaks to create alternate headers in my work in word 2013 to appear on odd and even pages but the section breaks I put in at the end of the first page of each chapter tends to push back my text and create a gap which looks bad as my work is justified. The gap is the area that the section break is taking up but it ruins my work. I have tried reducing the font size of the section break but this doesn't work at all. Any help would be much appreciated to remove the gap or to almost diminish the size of the section break line.

Thanks

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  1. Luc Sanders 48,525 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2015-09-15T07:39:36+00:00

    Lucas,

    Inserting a new continuous section will push the text to the next paragraph. Thus applying the paragraph spacing which is active, that would be 10 pt if nothing has been changed. If you put the cursor in the paragraph preceding the new section break and apply no spacing to the paragraph the gap will be gone.

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  2. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2015-09-15T10:19:20+00:00

    If by "alternate headers", you mean a different header on the odd page from the header on the even pages, that can be done by setting the Different Odd and Even option on the Header & Footer Tools>Design tab of the ribbon.

    Another way of varying the header content without the need of Section Breaks that may be suitable for you is to make use of StyleRef fields in the Header.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-09-15T08:30:12+00:00

    Thanks Luc.

    Your answer was similar to someone else's advice where I placed the section break at the end of a paragraph on the same page which solved the problem of the gap.

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-09-15T08:27:37+00:00

    Thank you very much 007. I have been racking my brains for hours on how to fix this infernal problem and you have solved it. I ended up - as you suggested - putting the break at the end of another paragraph or in my case a single line that didn't reach the end of the page. Thanks again for your help.

    Lucas

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  5. Anonymous
    2015-09-15T07:44:36+00:00

    Are you putting the section break in a separate paragraph between your text?

    Don't.  Put the section break at the end of the last paragraph you want on the page.

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