How To Get Rid Of Page Breaks In Word

Microsoft Word provides many tools that allow you to format the text that you have added to a document. But it also includes some formatting options for the document itself. This can range from things like columns, to other features like section breaks.

A section break in a Word document lets you split up your document into separate parts, which you can then format without affecting the rest of the document. A common use for this is to change the orientation for a single page of your document, while leaving the rest of the document in the current orientation.

But if you have previously created a section break that you no longer need, or if you are editing someone else's document and wish to remove one of the section breaks they've added, then our guide below will show you how.

How to Delete a Section Break in Microsoft Word

The steps in this article were performed in the Microsoft Word for Office 365 version of the application, but will also work in most other recent versions of Word. The first section of this article provides a quick overview of how to remove a Word section break, but you can continue scrolling to see the full guide with pictures, or you can click here to jump to that section.

Active Time 2 minutes

Total Time 2 minutes

Difficulty Medium

Materials

Microsoft Word document with section break

Instructions

Open your document in Word.
Select the Home tab.
Click the Show/Hide button in the Paragraph section.
Select the section break you wish to delete.
Press the Delete key on your keyboard.

Notes

New section breaks can be added by clicking the Breaks button on the Layout tab.

You can also delete a section break by placing your cursor to the left of the break, then pressing the Delte key on your keyboard.

Full Guide – Removing a Section Break in Word

Step 1: Open your document in Word.

Step 2: Select the Home tab at the top of the window.

Step 3: Click the Show/Hide button in the Paragraph section of the ribbon.

Step 4: Locate a section break in your document, then use your click your mouse on the left side of the break, hold it down, then drag to the right end of the break to select the entire thing. Alternatively you can place your mouse cursor at the left end of the break, but you may find that part of the break may remain after deletion.

Step 5: Press the Delete key (not the Backspace key) on your keyboard to remove the section break.

If you wish to add another section break to a document, click at the point where you wish to add the break, select the Layout tab, then click the Breaks button and choose the desired type of section break.

Does your document have a lot of formatting that is proving difficult to remove? Find out how to clear all formatting in Word if you would rather start over with plain text.

Matthew Burleigh has been writing tech tutorials since 2008. His writing has appeared on dozens of different websites and been read over 50 million times.

After receiving his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Computer Science he spent several years working in IT management for small businesses. However, he now works full time writing content online and creating websites.

His main writing topics include iPhones, Microsoft Office, Google Apps, Android, and Photoshop, but he has also written about many other tech topics as well.

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