Section break confusion

[WJ Shack]

I always thought the last paragraph marker of a section "contained" the
section formatting information. However, if I have document with three
sections and format them such that the page setup in the first is portrait,
in the second it is landscape, and in the third it is portrait again, I
can't find any way to delete the second section and have the two remaining
sections remain portrait. The first section always converts to portrait,
although I am careful to delete the second section break and the last
paragraph marker in the second section.

This is true for other kinds of section break information also, say: break
on odd page, break on new page, break on odd page. If I delete the break on
new page section, the previous section reverts to break on new page.

Can I delete a "middle" section without having to reformat the preceding
section?

 

[LH]

Microsoft won't admit it but section breaks are a trifle kooky when you
are trying to delete them or move them. Where there are two or more
sections, the last paragraph marker of the DOCUMENT contains section
infomation for the LAST SECTION ONLY. The last paragraph of the section
will NOT have the section formatting information. That is stored in the
section break itself ===(Section break new page)===

Before deleting or moving the section break, select the section break
itself, not the paragraph mark just before. Click right on the dividing
line. Don't double-click. Make sure the section break is formatted in
the "NORMAL" style and that the following text is in its own paragraph
i.e.,

===(Section break new page)==== <--should be normal paragraph style
Page Title (pilcrow mark) <-- could be Heading 1

Many times I see section breaks formatted as Heading 1 because the next
text is a page title, and the text and the section break are actually
one giant connected paragraph. Deleting the section break that is
connected to the text afterwards causes behavior typically not
expected.

If you are deleting the middle section, you should select all the
section 2 text including the last paragraph marker AND the section
break directly below that
Section 1 text
Last paragraph marker in section 1
==Section Break==
Section 2 text <--DELETE
last paragraph marker in section 2 <--DELETE
==Section Break== <--DELETE
Section 3 text <--DON'T delete
last paragraph marker in section 3

 

[WJ Shack]

Microsoft won't admit it but section breaks are a trifle kooky when you
are trying to delete them or move them. Where there are two or more
sections, the last paragraph marker of the DOCUMENT contains section
infomation for the LAST SECTION ONLY. The last paragraph of the section
will NOT have the section formatting information. That is stored in the
section break itself ===(Section break new page)===

Before deleting or moving the section break, select the section break
itself, not the paragraph mark just before. Click right on the dividing
line. Don't double-click. Make sure the section break is formatted in
the "NORMAL" style and that the following text is in its own paragraph
i.e.,

===(Section break new page)==== <--should be normal paragraph style
Page Title (pilcrow mark) <-- could be Heading 1

Many times I see section breaks formatted as Heading 1 because the next
text is a page title, and the text and the section break are actually
one giant connected paragraph. Deleting the section break that is
connected to the text afterwards causes behavior typically not
expected.

If you are deleting the middle section, you should select all the
section 2 text including the last paragraph marker AND the section
break directly below that

Merci. It does work and once you understand it even kind of makes sense.

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Lisa:

Oh, Microsoft will *admit* it They even "published" it... They coded
it that way after much debate

The "rule" in Word is that the "terminating" delimiter of an object contains
its properties. So the following section break contains the current page
orientation.

For paragraphs, they installed a work-around that causes the formatting of
the current paragraph to be copied "down" to the next paragraph when the
user deletes the current paragraph mark.

This causes slightly less confusion than rigidly following the rule. But
they discovered that if they did that to Section Breaks, users (who don't
understand them or even know they exist) got totally confused. So they left
it unchanged...

In the original poster's case, his problem is that he cannot delete the
DEFAULT section break, which is not stored "in" the paragraph mark, it's
"after" it (as you correctly point out).

There is no solution to this conundrum, other than to insert a new section
break to contain the landscape orientation.

Cheers

Microsoft won't admit it but section breaks are a trifle kooky when you
are trying to delete them or move them. Where there are two or more
sections, the last paragraph marker of the DOCUMENT contains section
infomation for the LAST SECTION ONLY. The last paragraph of the section
will NOT have the section formatting information. That is stored in the
section break itself ===(Section break new page)===

Before deleting or moving the section break, select the section break
itself, not the paragraph mark just before. Click right on the dividing
line. Don't double-click. Make sure the section break is formatted in
the "NORMAL" style and that the following text is in its own paragraph
i.e.,

===(Section break new page)==== <--should be normal paragraph style
Page Title (pilcrow mark) <-- could be Heading 1

Many times I see section breaks formatted as Heading 1 because the next
text is a page title, and the text and the section break are actually
one giant connected paragraph. Deleting the section break that is
connected to the text afterwards causes behavior typically not
expected.

If you are deleting the middle section, you should select all the
section 2 text including the last paragraph marker AND the section
break directly below that
Section 1 text
Last paragraph marker in section 1
==Section Break==
Section 2 text <--DELETE
last paragraph marker in section 2 <--DELETE
==Section Break== <--DELETE
Section 3 text <--DON'T delete
last paragraph marker in section 3

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410