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not start new paragraph after section break

Anonymous
2025-02-04T08:41:50+00:00

Whenever I insert a section break at the end of a paragraph, there will be a new paragraph pilcrow appearing at the end of the section break. Is there a way to not have it? I don't mean hiding the symbol. I meant not having the formatting of a new paragraph after I insert section break.

I have an addin tool that will compile different word document and this last paragraph always end up appearing in the next page when I compile them together.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For business | Windows

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  1. Paul Edstein 82,861 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2025-02-05T10:51:50+00:00

    The delivered function claims that it is word that is the problem with a paragraph break right after section break.

    Any competent developer would know that Word works that way by design - and has been that way for over 30 years! And, as the code in the link I posted demonstrates, working with that design is hardly rocket science.

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  2. John Korchok 231.5K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2025-02-04T15:21:26+00:00

    As Macropod wrote "the question you should be asking yourself is why you're creating that Section break in the first place" If there is to be no text after it, there no obvious purpose served by adding a section break. Please let us know what problem you're trying to solve with this, and we should be able to identify an alternate solution.

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  3. Paul Edstein 82,861 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2025-02-04T10:00:04+00:00

    Not really. You can minimize the point size and before/after spacing and set the line-spacing multiple to as little as 0.1, but the question you should be asking yourself is why you're creating that Section break in the first place. If all you're doing is balancing the columns at the end of the document, you can either wait until you've finished editing to decide whether you need to add the Section break to deal with the imbalance, or you could keep the Section break there until you've finished editing and delete it if you don't need it.

    For combining different documents without adding unnecessary trailing Section breaks, see: Combine Multiple Word Documents

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  4. Paul Edstein 82,861 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2025-02-04T09:11:42+00:00

    The last character in a Word document must always be a paragraph break. Inserting a Section break at the end of the document necessarily means there will be a paragraph break after it.

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  5. Paul Edstein 82,861 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2025-02-05T09:55:08+00:00

    So what's the issue? If you're going to add another document, it will need that Section break and paragraph break. If all you're worried about is the insertion of a Section break & paragraph break right at the end of the compiled document, the solution is simple: don't add them there.

    And, if this is an automated process, I've already given you a link to a macro that will do the compilation without the addition of unnecessary Section breaks at the end.

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