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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsTo delete a section break in desktop Word, turn on Home > Show/Hide (¶), locate the labeled break, select it, and press Delete. Before removing it, know that Word joins the two sections and applies the formatting of the section after the break to the combined section.
Delete a section break in Word desktop
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Save a copy of the document first if you need to preserve its current layout.
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On the Home tab, select Show/Hide (¶) to display formatting marks.
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Find the labeled section break at the boundary you want to remove. It may be labeled Next Page, Continuous, Even Page, or Odd Page.
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Select the break and press Delete. You can also place the cursor immediately before the break and press Delete or Backspace.
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Check the pages around the edit. Turn off Show/Hide (¶) when you are finished if you prefer not to see formatting marks.
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Microsoft’s section-break instructions cover Word for Microsoft 365 and desktop versions including Word 2024, 2021, 2019, and 2016. The toolbar may look different across versions; use the desktop app for the operation.
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Removing the break merges the material on both sides into one section. The merged section uses the formatting of the section that followed the deleted break, as Microsoft explains in its documentation. That can affect more than the line where you deleted the break.
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Section breaks let different parts of a document use different page layouts or formatting. They can control orientation, columns, headers and footers, page borders, and page numbering. Word supports Next Page, Continuous, Even Page, and Odd Page breaks; see Microsoft’s guide to using section breaks.
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Check whether pages have changed between portrait and landscape orientation.
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Review columns, headers, footers, page borders, and page numbering around the former boundary.
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Choose the right fix for what you want to change
| Goal | What to do | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Remove the section boundary | Delete the section break | The sections merge and the combined section takes the formatting of the section that followed the break. |
| Remove text but keep separate formatting | Select and delete only the unwanted content | The section break remains, preserving the formatting boundary. |
| Keep the boundary but avoid starting a new page | Change the break to Continuous, where appropriate | The section boundary stays in place without requiring a new-page start. |
| Use the previous section’s header or footer | Keep the break and use Link to Previous | The section remains separate while its header or footer links to the prior section. |
Fix a blank page without deleting the wrong break
A blank page may be caused by a section break, a manual page break, empty paragraphs, or Word’s required final paragraph. Turn on formatting marks first to see what is actually on the page; each cause has a different fix. Microsoft’s blank-page guidance notes that Next Page, Odd Page, and Even Page section breaks can create a blank page.
When a section break is at the end of the document
If the blank page is at the end and a section break is responsible, place the cursor immediately before that break and press Delete. Review the layout afterward because removing the break also merges the sections.
When the blank page is in the middle
Inspect the surrounding formatting before deleting a section break. Microsoft warns that deleting a break in the middle of a document can cause formatting problems; changing it to Continuous may be safer when the section boundary is still needed.
In desktop Word, place the cursor in the relevant section, open Layout, select the Page Setup dialog launcher, open the Layout tab, choose Continuous under Section start, and confirm. Microsoft documents these steps in Change a section break. Word for the web cannot change section breaks.
When the mark is a page break, not a section break
Do not delete a section break if the visible mark is actually a manual page break. These are different controls: a manual page break can be removed, while an automatically generated page break is not an object you can delete. See Microsoft’s instructions for removing a page break.
Word for the web
Microsoft’s web guidance says section breaks must be deleted using the desktop application. Open the document in desktop Word to remove the break, then inspect the layout there. See Delete a blank page in Word for the web for the web-specific guidance.
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