I have a document that is 361 pages long. I started with no section breaks at all, but with page breaks. I am replacing all page breaks with section breaks--mostly "Next" section breaks, but a few "Odd" section breaks at the beginning of the document. The document is to be a printed book, so it has mirror margins. Unfortunately, I do not own the copyright on the book (I'm doing this for the author), so I cannot upload it here as an example.

I was going happily along, deleting page breaks and inserting section breaks, and got to page 55--a few dozen section breaks in. The next section break I entered, with "Next" (not "Odd"), took me to page 57. I didn't notice, and entered a few more. Every section break after that point functioned like an "Odd" section break and not a "Next" section break.

I understand how section breaks work better than the average person (who doesn't understand them at all, so perhaps that's not saying much!). I thought maybe there was another section break in the book that was causing strange things to happen--nope, there are no section breaks at all after that point in the book.

I went back and deleted all the section breaks that didn't work right, and a number of page breaks, just to make sure that there weren't any hiding out. Didn't help.

I restarted Word. Didn't help. I rebooted my computer. Didn't help.

I am now officially stumped, and any assistance or clues would be greatly appreciated.