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.

You do not say much about the document other than what you are doing and it would be hard for someone to offer assistance not knowing much about the file. Of course, there is a difference between a "page" break and a "section" break. If you file does indeed contain sections, I would wonder where you are putting the section breaks (I would assume between each section but, you don't say).

Perhaps this link will help you: http://word.mvps.org/faqs/formatting...thSections.htm

If not, maybe you can offer more information. Hope this helps...

Hi Jim,

Thank you for your reply. I am removing page breaks and replacing them with section breaks both for page numbering purposes and for the purposes of creating a specific kind of div in the HTML when saved as HTML (the book will be both print and eBook). I've done this for years, in hundreds of books, and have never run into a problem with it before. I've attached a marked-up screenshot. When the cursor is on the page before the shown section break, it says page 55. When I move it to the next page, it says page 57, and the mirror margins reflect this. There are zero additional section breaks later in the document (but there are page breaks, which I haven't removed yet). There are 25 of them earlier in the document, both "Next" and "Odd".

Does this help clarify the weird issue I'm running into?

To add to the mystery, if I insert an "Even" page break, it does break to page 56 rather than 57 (so it would seem that "Next" is becoming "Odd"). But this could cause problems down the line if the pagination changes prior to this spot, so this is not the best solution, just a work-around.

I don't know what is happening but have a question. Why so many section breaks?
If you are adding sections to change headers and footers, this is probably unnecessary. These two links can let you see alternatives.

Sections / Headers and Footers in Microsoft Word 2007-2013
StyleRef Field

The reason for the many section breaks is twofold--one to ensure that the vertical spacing above the text is correct, and two because I export the books, after formatting, to HTML (to create eBooks) and process them with a script that reads the divs created by section breaks differently from page breaks. This particular book has page (and now section) breaks every couple pages.

Do any sections begin with a paragraph that has, either in the style or in the paragraph formatting, the attribute "page break before"?

Hi Literalman, Thanks for your suggestion. I checked every single first paragraph, both in the direct formatting and the style, and none of them have that setting... still a mystery!

Did a solution for this ever surface? I am struggling with similar phantom pages as well and cannot seem to get rid of them.
thx

Paxton,

This can be tough.

When working with section breaks it can help to work in Draft view with non-formatting formatting marks displayed. Showing non-printing formatting marks in Microsoft Word
In print view section marks can be tough to spot.
It also helps to add the Section indicator to the status bar.

You may want to post a new question rather than tag onto the end of this one. That can get you more views and answers.
Sections / Headers and Footers in Microsoft Word (Ribbon Versions)

thanks Charles, I have been using draft view as you suggested and it does help. also found that the zoom amount can effect if the auto pagebreaks are shown or not.
In my case I found the issue (after posting my inquiry). Someone had restarted page numbers at various places. I reset all but page to 1 to "continue from previous" etc. and that problem is fixed.
thx again

Should you run into the problem again, here is a link that may help:
Continuous Page Numbering Add-In