Delete section breaks at end of word document

C

Chris O.

I have a word document with one section break in it. After the section break,
the headers/footers/borders/margins are quite different to the front part of
the document.

I now want to delete the section break and have the whole document appear
like the first part of the section.

When I now try and delete this section break the whole document reverts to
the settings of the second half of the document and wipes out the first
half's setting.

Does anyone know how I can delete the section break and not loose the
document settings of the first half of the document?
 
S

SVC

There are two things you will need to do before deleting the section break.

1. Set the page setup in the section to be the same as the first
section--look in the first section under File > Page Setup , on the Margin
tab for the margin settings (Top, Bottom, Right, Left, as well as Header and
Footer) and make them the same in the second section. Also check the
settings on the other tables for any differences and make both sections the
same.

2. Now, using View > Header/Footer, first in the header select Same as
previous in the Header/Footer toolbar--this will bring the contents of the
header into the second section; now switch to the footer and do the same
thing.

Once you have the setup of both sections the same, you can delete the
section break and retain the setup of the first section throughout your
document.

I'd suggest that you work with a copy of your original just in case a
setting does not carry through properly.
 
S

SVC

Good suggestion re F4.

The only problem I see is that by accepting the page setup in the last
section and applying them to the next-to-last section, you will not get what
it sounds like to me was requested--to have the setup of the last section
match the setup of the next-to-last section ("I now want to delete the
section break and have the whole document appear like the first part of the
section.")

So the setup should be accepted in th next-to-last section, then move to the
last section and press F4 (the reverse of what you suggested).

As usual, I appreciate your suggestions which are right on the mark!
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

You're right, of course, and I think that is what I started to write and
then got confused.
 
Z

ziggy12345

I have been looking for a solution to this but cant find one. Where is
the section formating contained for the first section? Cant we copy it
and past it into the 2nd section? I tried selcting the formating in
normal view but when I past it i get a third section and i still cant
delete that!!

It seems the only way is to manually reformat the last section the same
as the fist and then delete the 1st.

Any ideas?
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

Have you looked at the last section of
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/WorkWithSections.htm? This explains how
to do what you want.

The section break between Sections 1 and 2 contains the formatting for
Section 1. You might think you could select that section break (easier to do
in Normal view) and press Ctrl+Shift+C to copy the formatting, then select
the final paragraph mark (which contains the formatting for Section 2) and
Ctrl+Shift+V to paste the formatting. Sadly, this doesn't work; you can copy
and paste the break itself, but not just its formatting.

There is a shortcut to "copy" just the Page Setup settings from one section
to another (explained at
http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/DetachEnvelope.htm), but I don't think it
would include page borders.
 
S

Stefan Blom

Go the section which has the desired page layout. Choose File | Page
Setup. Make sure that the "Apply to" box is set to "This section."
Click OK. Then go to the section that you need to change, and press
F4; this repeats the settings of the previous section. Do the same for
the Format | Borders and Shading dialog box. When all the settings are
equal, you can safely delete the section break.

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP


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