I'm running Office 2013 on a Windows 7 64 bit laptop. I have researched this and, so far, the problem is still happening.

I have a document that is straight text. I have a title page that has no page numbering; front matter for it that is numbered i, ii, iii etc. Then the content matter is numbered 1, 2, 3 etc. To do this, as you know, I had to put in two section breaks.

When I first looked up how to do this, it said to put a Section Break (Next) where the numbering changes. So on the TOC page after the Title Page, I put in a section break (Next). Then did the same for the content matter, to change it to 1 vs i.

The page numbers look great; they're working fine.



But if I do a print preview, print, or convert/save to a PDF, a blank page is after the section break.

I looked up solutions; a link here said it should be a section break (Odd). I got rid of the two section breaks (Next) and inserted them with Odd. Same problem: blank pages after the section breaks.

Just to make sure it's the section breaks, I got rid of them. No more blank pages. Of course, now my page numbering isn't what I want.

TIA!

Word will always force a restarted (odd) page number so that it appears on a right-hand (odd) page. This would also be typesetting standard. Or are you saying that you get more than one extra page next to each section break?

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Thanks for replying. Yes, that's what I mean; it's an extra page.

Could you share an example document? Of course, you should remove any sensitive information from the file first.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Absolutely. I've narrowed down the cause, but I'm not sure what to do.

Here's what is happening:

1. I create a new even page section. No blank pages happen.
2. The page numbering in the footer shows up as ii when it should be i. It's not linked to the previous section. The one image shows it.
3. I have to go in to Page Setup and change Layout -Section start - New Page to get the numbering correct.
4. This then creates the blank page between the dedication page and the acknowledgements page.

So I guess I need to figure out one of two things:

• Get the page numbering to work without setting Section Start to New Page. Or:
• Get the Next Page Section break to stop causing the blank page.

Thanks again!

Attached Images

	page example with wrong number.jpg (27.1 KB, 18 views)
	page example with blank page.jpg (30.8 KB, 18 views)

I'm afraid that a screen shot doesn't help much. Remove any content that you don't want to share and upload an example document to the forum.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional