Section breaks can be super useful as a means of breaking up long Word documents into more manageable chunks, of establishing chapters in a book, or sections in an article or business proposal. However, they can also become problematic if used incorrectly or too frequently, and can clutter up an otherwise tidy document.
To learn how to delete a section break in Microsoft Word, simply follow our tutorials below. For all other queries and any additional information, see the FAQs at the end of this article.
Table of Contents
How to delete an individual section break in Microsoft Word
- Open up the Microsoft Word app on your PC/device and load the document with the unwanted section break(s)
- Section breaks are usually invisible, so first, scroll to ‘Home’ in the toolbar at the top of the page, and then hit the ‘Show/Hide’ button in the ‘Paragraph’ section – doing so will reveal to you all section breaks and otherwise hidden characters in your document
- Locate the section break(s) you wish to delete, and place your cursor directly before it/them.
- On your keyboard, hit DEL, and your section break(s) will be deleted.
- Alternatively, click and drag to highlight the section break(s), and then hit DEL
How to delete all section breaks at once in Microsoft Word
- Open up the Microsoft Word app on your PC/device and load the document with the unwanted section break(s)
- Section breaks are usually invisible, so first, scroll to ‘Home’ in the toolbar at the top of the page, and then hit the ‘Show/Hide’ button in the ‘Paragraph’ section – doing so will reveal to you all section breaks and otherwise hidden characters in your document
- From the ‘Home’ section of the toolbar, locate and click on ‘Replace’ (alternatively, hit CTRL + H on your keyboard)
- From the ‘Find and Replace’ box which pops up, hit ‘More’, and then under ‘Replace’ click ‘Special’
- From the list of special characters for you to replace, find and click on ‘Section Breaks’
- Next, leave the ‘Replace with’ section blank, and hit ‘Replace all’. Word will locate all section breaks in your document and replace them with nothing (in other words, deleting or erasing them from the document)
And there you have it! Two quick and effective ways to either delete individually unwanted section breaks from your Word document, or remove all section breaks from the entire file.
For any other queries, or for additional information, see our FAQs below.
Frequently asked questions
What is Microsoft Word?
Microsoft Word is one of the world’s leading word processors, available as a piece of software on its own, or as part of one of the incredibly and universally popular Microsoft Office packages. With Microsoft Word, you can draft up any number of text-based documents, via the pre-set templates, or open a completely ‘blank’ document, and format, structure, and fill it however you like.
Word gives the user/writer the ability to embellish their document with images, links, tables, charts, and more, making it one of the most versatile word processing software packages available on the market today – whilst also remaining super accessible and easy to use.
What is a section break in Word?
A section break in Word is a point in the document which you establish as being the end of one section, and the start of another. It is a useful tool to use for breaking long documents up into various parts – especially useful to divide chapters in a book, or sections in an essay or article. There are four types of section breaks available to the Word user: ‘Continuous’, ‘Next Page’, ‘Even Page’, and ‘Odd Page’.
A ‘Continuous’ section break splits up the text but keeps it on the same page. ‘Next Page’ places a section break after your chosen paragraph, and starts the next paragraph/sentence on the next page/a new page. The ‘Odd’ and ‘Even Page’ section breaks start the next paragraph/sentence on the next odd or even-numbered page, accordingly.
How do I apply a section break in the first place?
Bring your cursor to the point in your text at which you want to place a section break, and click to establish the point. Next, click ‘Layout’ from the toolbar along the top. Now, click ‘Breaks’, and from the drop-down menu, select the kind of section break you want to insert.
Once you’ve chosen it, click on it, and it will be inserted. Note: section breaks are typically invisible; to see them in the document, navigate back to ‘Home’ in the toolbar, and click the ‘Show/Hide’ icon in the ‘Paragraph’ section. Now, you’ll be able to see all the linebreaks you’ve inserted into the document, as well as any other typically hidden characters.
I’ve accidentally deleted a section break in Word, what do I do?
Fear not, if you’ve just accidentally deleted a section break in Word, then simply press the ‘Undo’ option toward the top left of the page, or press CTRL + Z on your keyboard to perform the same function.
If the accidental deletion was something you did a few actions ago, then you’ll have to press ‘Undo’ a few times – just remember that this will also undo anything you’ve done since accidentally deleting the line break.
Alternatively, you can quickly and easily reinstate a line break in the same place by following our instructions in the relevant FAQ above.
