Documents of any size may have distinct parts. Beyond separating content with headings, we can use page breaks and section breaks to differentiate parts of the document. While page breaks provide a visual distinction, section breaks allow us to format the content of each section differently. This formatting could include page layout, alignment, columns, or page numbering.
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Considering inclusive design
When inserting a page break or new page, it is important to use the break tools built into Microsoft Word. Pressing the Enter key or Return key several times will create confusion for users who utilize screen reading software. The assistive software may read each of these lines as "blank" and cause the reader to think they have reached the end of the document.
Inserting a page break
The content of our document is complete. However, there are some problems with the spacing. The bibliography should be on its own page, as should the author's note.
Let's start by putting the bibliography on the fourth page of the document.
- Move to the Bibliography heading.
- To place the cursor before the Bibliography heading,
Click before the B in Bibliography
- To insert a page break, on the keyboard, press:
Control key + Enter key
The bibliography is now on the fourth page with no other content.
Inserting section breaks
In this document, we are going to use different types of page numbers for different parts of the content. For this reason, we want the table of contents and author's note to be in their own sections. The remainder of the document will be in a third section. To accomplish this, we will put section breaks after the table of contents and author's note. Because we want these sections to be on their own pages, we will use next page section breaks.
- Move to the first page of the document.
- To place the cursor before the Author's note heading,
Click before the A in "Author's note"
- To insert the next page section break, on the Layout tab,
Click
, Click Next Page
The table of contents is now in its own section and the Author's note section has moved to the second page. Now let's add another section break to put the author's note in a section alone. We'll insert this break before the Wildflowers by season section heading.
- Move to the second page of the document.
- To place the cursor before the Wildflowers by season heading,
Click before the W in "Wildflowers by season"
- To insert the next page section break, on the Layout tab,
Click
, Click Next Page
- To save the document, on the keyboard, press:
Control key + S
The author's note is now alone on the second page of the document. The remaining content starts on page three.
We will use these sections to add different page numbering schemes to the document.