Section break (odd page) not working (Word 2004)

[Snowshoe Bob]

I have been working on a badly formatted document and have been trying to
fix things. It is not perfect but it is coming around, however, every time I
try to:

Insert>Break>Section Break (Odd page)

It changes back to Section Break (Next page) regardless of what I do. I
cannot figure out what is going on.

OS 10.5.6
Word 2004 11.3.8 (070817)

Bob

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Bob -

The first possible contributor to the problem is that your installation of
Office is way behind on updates - you specified 11.3.8 but the current build
for Office 2004 is 11.5.3, so I'd suggest that you run Help> Check for
Updates before troubleshooting any further. Once Office is fully updated
repair disk permissions & see if the problem continues.

As for the Headers - Are you simply trying to have alternating Odd/Even or
are you trying to have multiple Odd Page Headers? You can only insert Odd or
Even Section Breaks effectively if the document is set for Different Odd and
Even Pages on the Header/Footer Toolbar. Once that setting is in place,
though, the Odd/Even Headers & Footers are automatic & provide for
consistent Odd Page Headers & consistent Even Page Headers throughout the
document. If needed you can then create Odd or Even Page Section breaks if
you want vary Odd Page Headers and/or Even Page Headers in different areas
of the document (i.e., chapters).

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Snowshoe Bob]

Thanks very much. I both reconstructed the document and undated Office (I
hadn't realised that auto-update had been turned off) and it seems to have
worked.

 

[CyberTaz]

Great to hear - and thanks for taking the opportunity to let us know

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Snowshoe Bob]

Perhaps I don't understand what Insert>Section break (odd page) means, but
for me it is not doing what I expect it to.

What I want is a section break that starts the next page on an odd (i.e.,
facing) page, without manually adding blank pages when the last text is on
an odd (facing page). But it is not working like that for me. For example, I
have an exam, I want the last page (the answer page) to start on an odd
(facing) page regardless of what page (odd or even) the previous page is on.
But when I insert Section break (odd page), while the page number is odd, it
is on the back of the pervious page.

Is that how it is supposed to work? Is there a way to get what I want?

OS 10.5.6
Word 2004 11.5.3 (081112)

 

[John McGhie]

Yeah, well the mechanism is not that clearly described

First you have to set the Layout of the Document to be "Different odd and
even" so the document is set up for double-sided printing.

Then the Odd Page section break will automatically cause a new sheet to be
inserted into the output when you print. Part of the confusion with this
mechanism is that it has no visible effect at all UNTIL you print

If you go into File>Print Preview, Word sends the document to your printer
driver and returns the output to the screen. If you do that, you will see
totally blank sheets appearing where the even pages are being inserted.

If you print, they will be inserted as needed in the output.

There is one other thing that "could" be going wrong, but it's very rare.
Some printers have a "skip blank pages" feature. If that's turned on, it
will "eat" the blank page Word inserts. Because the page Word inserts is
totally blank, the printer can't tell the difference. We have been trying
to get that changed to continue the header and footer onto the blank page to
avoid this for more than a decade...

I haven't seen one of those for years, so I suspect this is pretty unlikely.
If it's your printer, you would know if you had set it ‹ it it's a work or
school printer, ask the Administrator.

Hope this helps

Perhaps I don't understand what Insert>Section break (odd page) means, but
for me it is not doing what I expect it to.

What I want is a section break that starts the next page on an odd (i.e.,
facing) page, without manually adding blank pages when the last text is on
an odd (facing page). But it is not working like that for me. For example, I
have an exam, I want the last page (the answer page) to start on an odd
(facing) page regardless of what page (odd or even) the previous page is on.
But when I insert Section break (odd page), while the page number is odd, it
is on the back of the pervious page.

Is that how it is supposed to work? Is there a way to get what I want?

OS 10.5.6
Word 2004 11.5.3 (081112)

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[CyberTaz]

I'm not really clear on what you're asking for - but it's been a long week
so it's probably just me

It sounds like if the content ends on an even page we're OK - a simple page
break will cause the "answer" page to be odd which is what I understand you
to want. It's just when the content ends on an odd page that's problematic.

That's where I'm unclear on your requirement... The last content page is odd
& you want the next "answer" page to be odd as well but you don't want an
even page in between? I don't see how this can be done. If the content ends
on page 5 & you want the "answers" to be on page 7 only 1 of 2 things can
happen in a Word doc: either page 6 has to exist & it will be blank or else
page 7 will have to be on the reverse side of page 5.

Keep in mind that there are no physical pages in the structure of a Word doc
- it's a linear flow of content from beginning to end. Pagination is imposed
by the printer driver based on the volume & formatting of the content as
well as the page size & margin constraints set for the document.

Like I said, it's probably just me, so if I'm misunderstanding please try to
clarify your goal a bit more.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac