Problem deleting Section Break

Question

Hello everybody

I have an issue deleting a Section Break. I have a document where two section breaks appears one after the other. (I tried inserting a picture in .bmp and .jpg but it failed, so I will try to describe it as best I can.) So, here what I have now:

 Chapter title page

 ================Section Break (Next Page)================

 Empty

 ================Section Break (Odd Page)================

 Text

Now, if I insert my caret (or cursor) before the second Section Break like this:

 Chapter title page

 ================Section Break (Next Page)================

 Empty

 |================Section Break (Odd Page)================

 Text

And when I press Delete (not Backspace!), Word will delete one of the breaks, but the first one. So now, "Next Page" becomes "Odd Page" even if my cursor was in front of the other one. The issue in my case is that the page before the "Next Page" break is already an Odd page. By replacing the "Next Page" break with an "Odd Page" one, it gives me a blank page between the two and it messes up my layout... I also tried selecting the entire line by using the mouse and also by using Shift + Right Arrow with the same results.

Just in case it has an impact, the reason I have two Section Breaks back-to-back is simply that I modified my layout. Before, I had a page where the Chapter's title appeared (on an odd page) and I skipped one page to have the text start on the next odd page. But I modified my layout where the text actually starts on the same page as the chapter's title. I have inserted a section break because the layout is different on the following pages so I wanted one section for the Chapter Title and one layout for the rest of the chapter.

I am pretty familiar with computers having worked a number of years as a DTP specialist using QuarkXPress and InDesign and I have to admit that I don't understand if it's something I am doing right or if it is a bug...

I hope everything is pretty clear. So, anybody have an idea? I am opened to any suggestions. Thanks in advance for any input you might have.

Richard

Answer 1

In Word, a section break stores the section properties of the preceding section but displays the type of the following section. This causes confusion when you delete a break, as section formatting may be lost in the process.

Note that after you have deleted a break, you can click in a remaining section and then display the Page Setup dialog box in which you can change the type of section back to the desired type. Make use of the "Section start" option on the Layout tab.

Of course, you can change any other section-level properties as required. For example, you can change the number of newspaper columns (using the Columns dialog box).

Answer 2

I'm glad I could help. :-)

Answer 3

@Stefan Blom: Sorry, I tried replying to your post, but it won't let me. Anyway. That does seem to do the trick. Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my question. Have a good one.

Richard