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Smart & Easy Software Tips, Tricks & Techniques
July 2005 - Issue 10, Volume 2
Publisher: Dawn Bjork Buzbee mailto:Dawn@SoftwarePro.com
The Software Pro (tm), Microsoft Certified Office Expert
http://www.SoftwarePro.com

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IN THIS ISSUE - Understanding Word Formatting-Part 2

1. Page or Document Formatting
2. The Frustration with Page Formatting
3. What are Sections?
4. A Quick Look at Section Breaks
5. Viewing Section Breaks

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Formatting text in Microsoft Word can be much easier if
you know more about how Word works and applies formatting.

An overview of character and paragraph formatting was covered in a recent issue. Learn more at:
http://www.SoftwarePro.com/archives/may2005-8.htm

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1. Page or Document Formatting
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Page formatting in Microsoft Word includes:

* Margins
* Page size and orientation
* Headers & footers
* Page numbering
* Columns
* and other page formatting instructions

How Page Formatting Works: document or page formatting usually determines the appearance of the entire document regardless of the size of the document.

Word assumes that the document formatting choices are for the whole document; formatting changes can be made from any location in a document. Most page formatting is handled from the File > Page Setup menu command. Just make sure that you do not select text before making these changes or you will automatically create section breaks (more on that in this issue).

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2. The Frustration with Page Formatting
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The page formatting of most documents can be easily modified, that is, until you want to change the document formatting only for a specific page or starting a a particular location.

Large documents can be a challenge in Microsoft Word unless you understand how page formatting works. For instance, even if when you only want to change a header or page number starting at the top of an individual page, Word assumes that you want to change the entire document. This is especially frustrating for past WordPerfect users who were able to change document formatting from any page forward.

What to do in Microsoft Word? Create section breaks.

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3. What are Sections?
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If any of the page formatting will change within a document, the text needs to be divided into sections that allow for distinct formatting for each.

You might think of your document as a large piece of undeveloped, flat land. Initially, it has one set of boundaries without any distinctive elements. Now, you want to divide the land into plots for individual property owners who can develop their areas in any way that they want. Each lot is divided with fences and property lines...in Word, these boundaries are called section breaks. The section breaks allow you to change the document formatting for one section without modifying the rest of the document.

Section breaks in a long document allow you to have different page numbers, margins, and other formatting for portions such as a title page, report pages, appendix sections, and others. Section breaks also make it easy to switch between one column to multiple columns and then back to one.

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Contact us to let us know how we can help you:
http://www.softwarepro.com/contact.htm

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4. A Quick Look at Section Breaks
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Section breaks are needed in a document when:
* Page formatting changes within the same document or
* Your document includes more than one type of column formatting

How It Works: a section break separates the document into multiple sections for individualized formatting. With section formatting, a document can easily be divided into separate pieces such as a title page, report detail, appendixes, portrait vs. landscape layout, and other changes to the document structure.

Other section breaks including continuous, odd, and even are also available.

Try This: open a multiple page document and move part of the way down one page. Without selecting any text, choose Insert > Break…Section breaks, and then choose Next Page, OK. The text below your cursor location will move to a new page and new section. Look at the bottom-left of your screen. Do you see Sec 2? Move back to the previous page and the status bar should read Sec 1.

At any location in Section 1, pick File > Page Setup, the Margins tab and make a big change to a margin. Now, choose File > Print Preview to see the difference between the pages. Whatever changes you make in a specific section will normally be limited to that section.

Section breaks are also automatically created any time that you select a portion of text and then pick File > Page Setup to change document formatting; your choices will be applied just to the selected part of text.

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5. Viewing Section Breaks
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In addition to the status bar display, section formatting is easier to work with if the section breaks are clearly visible:

* Turn on the Show/Hide feature: press [Ctrl]+* or
* Temporarily switch to the Normal view: View > Normal. For best document viewing and editing switch back with View > Print Layout.

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Understanding how Word formatting and section breaks work will simplify how you create and edit your Word documents.

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