How can I remove the blank page after section break?

Anonymous
2010-09-01T15:46:18+00:00

Don't want blank page between different sections in draft document ("next page" section breaks). Tried hiding and tried changing paragraph symbol font size to 1. Still getting blank page. UGH!

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Stefan Blom 353K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2010-09-01T18:04:14+00:00

Under certain circumstances, the section break, or actually the blank paragraph containing the section break, may cause an extra page (this might happen below a table, for example). Formatting it as 1 pt font size, exact line spacing 1 pt, zero spacing before/after should fix it. You may also want to format it as hidden text. In fact, you can create a paragraph style with those characteristics and apply it to the empty paragraph in question.

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Anonymous
2012-08-18T08:09:57+00:00

Don't want blank page between different sections in draft document ("next page" section breaks). Tried hiding and tried changing paragraph symbol font size to 1. Still getting blank page. UGH!

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Stefan Blom 353K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2010-12-31T18:46:25+00:00

The workaround you have found is documented in the article at http://word.mvps.org/faqs/formatting/WorkWithSections.htm.

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-04-22T14:22:43+00:00

    I see this has been answered, but I've had this problem before and it's always been because someone had turned on "different odd and even" headers/footers. Removing this fixes it, but this time that wasn't even turned on, and it took me FOREVER to figure it out.

    Because we use a lot of section breaks in our documents, I made sure that none of the headers or footers had "Same as Previous" on, and then checked the margins of each section individually.  All was fine until just one section had "Mirrored Margins" on instead of "Normal" margins.  Removing this, and checking each other section to be sure, has solved my problem this time.  So check your margins! :)

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-05-08T18:40:24+00:00

    Stefan, help! I want a continuous break. Yet in this document (and not in past documents) despite using a continuous break (which clearly shows), the new section starts on the next page (even though this leaves almost a whole page blank). I've wasted hours... I cannot make the new section appear on the same page. I'd love to upload a screen shot i took, but there is no way to do that, I guess.

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