Adding Sections to Documents

When you work with larger documents, you might have several parts in the document, such as a cover page, a table of contents, and then the body of the document. In most cases, these different parts of the document require different formatting and layout attributes. To divide a document into different parts that have different layouts, you use sections. A section can contain its own set of formatting options. You can divide a document into as many sections as you need.

Section A portion of a document (defined with section breaks that you insert) that can be formatted differently from the rest of the document or other distinct sections of the document.

When you first begin a new document, the document consists of one section with consistent page formatting throughout the document. If you look at the status bar in a new document, you find that it reads "Sec 1," which means that the insertion point is currently in Section 1 of the document (which would be the entire document, in this case).

Sections are defined in your document as section breaks (which mean a certain position in the document serves as the break between the existing section and the new section you insert). To place additional section breaks in a document, follow these steps:

1. Place the insertion point where you would like to insert the new section break.

2. Select Insert , Break . The Break dialog box appears. In the lower half of the Break dialog box, several section break types are available (see Figure 20.1).

   • Next Page A page break is placed in the document, and the new section begins on this new page.

   • Continuous The new section starts at the insertion point and continues for the rest of the document (or until it comes to the next defined section).

   • Even Page The new section starts on the next even-numbered page.

   • Odd Page The new section starts on the next odd-numbered page.

   Figure 20.1. Select your type of section break in the Break dialog box.

   

3. Select the option button for the type of section break you want to place in the document.

4. Click OK to insert the new section into the document.

Your new section break appears in the document. In the Normal view, the section break appears as a double horizontal line marked with the text "Section Break" followed by the type of section you selected. If you are working in the Print Layout view, the only way to see which section you're in is to look at the number displayed on the status bar (see Figure 20.2).

Figure 20.2. You can easily find out which section of a document you are in by reading the status bar or switching the document to Normal View.

After you have the new section in the document, you can apply page formatting to it as needed.

If you want to delete a section break, place the mouse pointer in the selection area and select the section break the same as you would any other line of text (this won't work in the Print Layout view). After the section break is selected, press the Delete key to remove it.