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Page Breaks Not Showing in Draft view

Anonymous
2010-09-08T20:44:32+00:00

OK, more fun with Word 2010: Page Breaks are not showing in Draft view.

I've created a brand new blank docx doc into which I inserted 100+ pages of text from a 2003 doc (Insert > Object > Text from File). When I try to manually insert page breaks (Ctrl + Enter), they don't show up in Draft view. The existing page breaks, both automatic and manually inserted, show up -- it's only new ones that don't. This is problematic when I'm trying to see what's going on with the page and section breaks. Another bug??

Microsoft -- if you're reading this, it looks like I'm running into all sorts of little incompatibilities between 2003 and 2010 (see my other posts here). Was it that hard to move 2003 stuff forward?? I've got YEARS of 2003 docs that I'm going to now be struggling with in 2010?? In less than two days (mostly today), I've had troubles with templates, tables, dictionaries (twice), pictures shifting position, and whatever else I discover next paragraph down -- gimme a moment and I'll be back to ask about it as soon as I fail, again, to solve another problem...

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-09-09T00:20:57+00:00

    OK, answering my own question:

    File > Options > Advanced, then scroll to the bottom to Under Compatibility options for:, click onLayout Options, then tick theShow hard page or column breaks in frames > OK.

    This is, frankly, ridiculous. ALL section break types already appear in Draft view, and automatically occurring page breaks do, too. So why make the user dig as deeply as possible into the settings to see the manual page breaks?? I cannot come up with ONE good reason why most but not all break types, by default, appear in Draft mode. Furthermore, the wording for the Layout Option is poor: to the end user, Draft view has NOTHING to do with frames.

    Hot tip for MS staff reading this: google, um, bing this: vw you get an f, and watch the video (don't worry, it's funny, safe for work, and if you're a car guy, you probably already saw it). Replace Jason in the ad with Word 2010 when the stern German gal pins the letter on his chest. On second thought, it's on YouTube, so maybe Google products are blocked in Redmond??  Cheers...

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  1. Anonymous
    2011-01-21T10:33:32+00:00

    Many people here are recommending that you use print layout but using draft layout has a benefit not available in print layout.  

    If you expand the Style Area Pane (Office button, Word options, Advanced) it makes it very easy to see which styles have been applied to each paragraph without having to click on the paragraph itself. When you are working on a 50 page document and the auto-paragraph numbering isn't working this is the fastest way to see if someone has misapplied paragraph styles.   So, Hans, I am with you on this one - it is not always convenient to use page layout!

    We had this problem on a document and resolved it by selecting the layout option (Office Button, Word Options, Advanced, Layout Options) tosplit apart page break and paragraph mark. 

    This link may explain why it happens.

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923183

    Hope this helps. 

    Cataze

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-09-08T22:22:10+00:00

    Thought I replied but it didn't stick??

    I rebooted, to no avail. If I have to view Hidden formatting to do it, I will; however, I've been able to view the breaks this way for years -- why not now, and why only NEW breaks, not pre-existing? And you yourself are able to on your computer.

    As for whether Draft view is the best way to see breaks: it is, for me, because I can very quickly see where manual, auto and section breaks are. Well, I used to be able to...

    Thanks for you response,

    -Hans

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-09-08T22:32:41+00:00

    Another thing I'm noticing is that the manual page breaks cannot be copied/pasted if the a blank page follows the manual page break. I tried copying/pasting three pages from an existing doc, like this:

    Page: Lorem ipsum, etc....

    [page break]

    Blank Page...

    [section break, next page]

    Lorem ispum, etc...

    I ended up with *two* pages, not three...

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  3. Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 322.9K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2010-09-08T21:02:09+00:00

    I cannot reproduce that issue.  However, I would not have thought that draft view was the best view to be used to see what is going on with page and section breaks.

    How about using page layout view and click on the Show/Hide button (¶) to see the formatting marks.

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