How to Delete a Section Break in Microsoft Word

Co-authored by wikiHow Staff

Last Updated: December 9, 2023 Tested

This wikiHow teaches you how to remove a section break from a document in any word processor program. Section breaks are used to control page layout, page numbering, column layout etc. You can usually show non-printing characters on the document, and delete the break immediately. It may affect how your document looks so be ready to undo your deletion and find another way to fix your issue.

Steps

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Find and double-click the document to open it in your word processor program. If your document has a lot of complex formatting, you may want to save a recovery version of it before you start deleting section breaks
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Find and click the ¶ button on the toolbar. You can usually find this button on the toolbar at the top of your document in any word processor. It will show the non-printing characters on the document.
- This will only enable the non-printing characters in the document, such as paragraphs marks, page breaks and section breaks. This punctuation will not print out.
- In Microsoft Word, you can find it on the Home toolbar.
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Place your cursor before the section break. A section break is usually shown as a horizontal line. Make sure you do this above the correct section break. Don't delete any page breaks you do want by mistake.
This will delete the selected section break from your document.