How To Remove Section Breaks In Word- Best In 2021

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How To Remove Section Breaks in Word

How To Remove Section Breaks In Word

Microsoft Word is one of the most popular word processing software available in the technology market for many platforms. The software, which is developed and maintained by Microsoft, offers various features for you to type and edit your documents. Whether it’s a blog article or a research paper, Word makes it easy for you to create documents that meet professional standards.

You can even type a complete e-book in MS Word! Word is a powerful word processor that can include images, graphics, charts, 3D models, and many such interactive modules. One such formatting feature is section breaks, which are used to create multiple sections in your Word document.

How to Remove Section Breaks in Word

Section Break is a formatting option in word processing software that allows you to divide a document into multiple sections. Visually, you can see the break that divides the two halves. When cutting a document into various parts, you can easily format a specific part of the document without affecting the remaining text.

Type Section Break in Microsoft Word

  • Next page: This option will start a Section Break on the next page (i.e., the following page)
  • Continuous: This Section Break option will start a section on the same page. This type of Section Break changes the number of columns (without adding a new page in your document).
  • Even page: This type of Section Break is used to start a new section on the next even-numbered page.
  • Odd page: This type is opposite to the previous page. This will start a new section on the next page which is odd-numbered.

Here is some formatting you can apply to specific parts of your document file using Section Breaks:

  • Change the page orientation
  • Add a header or footer
  • Add a number to your page
  • Adding a new column
  • Add a page break
  • Starting page name numbering later

As such, Section Breaks are a useful way to format your text. But sometimes, you may want to remove Section Breaks from your text. If you no longer need a Section Break, here’s how to remove a Section Break from Microsoft Word.

How to Add Section Breaks in Microsoft Word

1. To add a Section Break, navigate to the System Layout Microsoft Word You then select the “Breaks”,

2. Now, select the type of Section Break your document needs.

How to Find Section Breaks in MS Word

To view the Section Breaks you’ve added, click the (Show/Hide) icon from the Home tab. This will show all paragraph marks and section breaks in your Word document.

How to Remove Section Breaks in Word

If you want to remove a Section Break from your document, you can easily do that by following one of the methods mentioned below.

Method 1: Manually Deleting Section Breaks

Many people like to manually delete Section Breaks in their Word documents. To achieve this,

1. Open your Word document then from the Home tab, activate the (Show/Hide) option to see all Section Breaks in your document.

2. Select the Section Break you want to delete. Just dragging your cursor from the left edge to the right end of Section Break will do just that.

3. Press the Delete key or the Backspace key. Microsoft Word will delete the selected Section Break.

4. Alternatively, you can position your mouse cursor before the Section Break then press the  Delete / Delete key.

Method 2: How to Remove Section Break using Find & Replace. option

There is a feature available in MS Word that allows you to find a word or sentence and replace it with another one. Now we’re going to use that feature to find our section break and replace it.

1. From Microsoft Word’s Home tab, select the Change option. Or press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + H.

2. In the Find and Replace pop-up window, select the More >> option

3. Then click on Special Now select Section break from the menu that appears.

4. Word will fill the Find text box with “^b” (You can also type it directly in the Find what text box)

5. Leave the Replace text box blank as is. Select Replace all Select OK in the confirmation window. This way, you can delete all Section Breaks in your document in one go.

Method 3: Removing Section Break Running Macro

Recording and running macros can automate and simplify your tasks.

1. To start, press Alt + F11 The Visual Basic window will appear.

2. In the Left Pane, right-click on Normal.

3. Select Insert> Module.

4. A new module will open, and a coding space will appear on your screen.

5. Now type or paste the code below :

Sub DeleteAllSectionsInOneDoc()
  With Selection
    .HomeKey Unit:=wdStory
    With Selection.Find
      .ClearFormatting
      .Replacement.ClearFormatting
      .Text = "^b"
      .Replacement.Text = ""
      .Forward = True
      .Wrap = wdFindContinue
      .Format = False
      .MatchCase = False
      .MatchWholeWord = False
      .MatchWildcards = False
      .MatchSoundsLike = False
      .MatchAllWordForms = False
    End With
    Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
  End With
End Sub

6. Click the Run option or press F5.

Method 4: Remove Section Break from Multiple Documents

If you have more than one document and want to remove Section Breaks from all of them, this method might help.

1. Open the folder and put all the documents in it.

2. Follow the previous method to run the macro.

3. Paste the code below in the module.

Sub DeleteAllSectionBreaksInMultiDoc()
  Dim StrFolder As String
  Dim strFile As String
  Dim objDoc As Document
  Dim dlgFile As FileDialog
  Set dlgFile = Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogFolderPicker)
  With dlgFile
    If .Show = -1 Then
      StrFolder = .SelectedItems(1) & "\"
    Else
      MsgBox "No folder is selected! Please select the target folder."
      Exit Sub
    End If
  End With
  strFile = Dir(StrFolder & "*.docx", vbNormal)
  While strFile <> ""
    Set objDoc = Documents.Open(FileName:=StrFolder & strFile)
    With Selection
      .HomeKey Unit:=wdStory
      With Selection.Find
        .ClearFormatting
        .Replacement.ClearFormatting
        .Text = "^b"
        .Replacement.Text = ""
        .Forward = True
        .Wrap = wdFindContinue
        .Format = False
        .MatchCase = False
        .MatchWholeWord = False
        .MatchWildcards = False
        .MatchSoundsLike = False
        .MatchAllWordForms = False
      End With
      Selection.Find.Execute Replace:=wdReplaceAll
    End With
    objDoc.Save
    objDoc.Close
    strFile = Dir()
  Wend
End Sub

4. Run the above macro. A dialog box will appear, browse to the folder you created in step 1 and select the folder. That is all! All your Section Breaks will disappear in seconds.

Method 5: Removing Section Breaks using Third-Party Tools

You can also try using third-party tools or add-ins available for Microsoft Word. One such tool is Kutools  – an add-in for Microsoft Word.

Note: It will help if you remember that when the Section Break is deleted, the text before the section and after the section is combined into one section. This section will contain the formatting used in the section that appears after the Section Break.

You can use the Link to the previous option if you want your section to use the styles and headers from the previous section.

The final word

Maybe that’s all you can say about How to Easily Delete Section Breaks in Word. Hopefully, it’s helpful and useful for you, don’t forget to comment and share this article, thank you !!

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