I have created several section breaks in my document. I then attempt to create separate headers and footers (page numbers) for each section. Word seems to want to apply the changes to all sections. More specifically, I don't want page numbers in the first section, but when I add them to the second section, they appear in the first. If I manually delete the numbers from the first section, the numbers in the section section disappear.



I've tried clicking on the "Link to Previous" section in order to disable this, but it seems like it's on by default.

Indeed it is, so you need to unlink them (by clicking once on 'Link to Previous') before inserting the content you don't want to cross the Section boundaries.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Link to previous is on by default, yes.
See:

• Numbering Front Matter (Ribbon) by Suzanne Barnhill
• Header/Footer Settings Recap