Office X for Macintosh: The Missing Manual

chapter 3: formatting in word 137

Section Formatting

The Formatting Palette doesn’t say anything about section formatting; in fact, most

people have never even heard of it.

Still, section formatting is important in a few special circumstances, such as these:

• Sections allow you to divide a document into chapters, each with its own headers

or footers.

• Sections let you change from, say, a one-column format for your opening para-

graph to a three-column format for the body of the article. They also let you

insert a landscape-orientation page or two into a paper that’s primarily in por-

trait orientation.

• Sections give you flexibility in printing; you can print your title page on colored

paper from a different paper tray on your printer, for example.

• You can set different margins for each section of your document; this might come

in handy if your training manual contains multiple-choice quizzes for which you

could really use narrower page margins.

The bottom line: A section is a set of pages in your document that can have its own

independent settings for page numbering, lines, footnotes, and endnotes. It can also

have its own layout features, such as page borders, margins, columns, alignment,

text orientation, and even page size. Finally, it can have its own printer settings, such

as orientation and paper source.

Inserting and Removing Section Breaks

To start a new section, choose Insert→Break, then choose one of the Section Break

types—depending upon where you want the new section to begin (relative to the

current page). For instance, to change the number of columns in the middle of a

page, choose Section Break (Continuous); to start the next chapter on a new page,

choose Section Break (Next Page). If you’re self-publishing a novel, remember that

new chapters usually begin on a right-hand page; choose Section Break (Odd Page).

You’ll see the change reflected right away; in Normal view, a section break shows up

as two finely dotted lines labeled “Section Break (Next Page)” or whatever kind you

inserted (see Figure 3-15). In Page Layout view, you see only the effect of the page

break; if you chose the “Next Page” type, your text abruptly stops in the middle of

one page and picks up again on the next. But if you click the Show/Hide (¶) button

on the Standard toolbar, the breaks appears as double dotted lines, just as in Normal

view.

Choosing a section type may sound like a big commitment, but don’t fret—you can

always go back and change it. To do so, click anywhere in the section that you want

to change—that is, just after the section break itself—and then choose

Format→Document→Layout tab. Choose a new section type from the “Section start”

menu. (This menu offers an additional section-break option: New column, which is

useful solely if you’re designing your document with multiple columns, as described

Section

Formatting

138 office x for macintosh: the missing manual

Figure 3-15:

Top: Create a section break by

choosing from the Insert menu

(there’s no dialog box for it).

Bottom: An example of a “Next

page” section break, shown here

separating the table of contents

from the text, and a “Continuous”

section break, separating one-

column and two-column parts of

a page.

on page 150. To make an existing column start at the top of the page, click it and

choose “New column.”)

To remove a section break, just click its double dotted line and press Delete.

Caution: Deleting a section break, or the last paragraph marker in a section (click ¶ to see it), also

deletes its formatting. The section before the break will take on the formatting of the section after it. The

sudden appearance of 24 pages of a two-column layout, for example, can be disconcerting if you’re not

prepared for it, to say the least.

Formatting Within Sections

To change formatting or other settings within a section, such as page numbering or

headers and footers, just click in the section and use the commands in Word’s dialog

boxes and toolbars. Settings like margins, alignment, columns, and page orienta-

tion, plus any feature involving numbering, such as page and line numbering, head-

ers and footers, and so on, operate independently of the other sections in the docu-

ment.

Section

Formatting