- You can use the “Show/Hide” feature (¶ button) to make additional symbols visible before removing a section break in Word.
- Some types of section breaks may change the document when removed. Save the document or a backup copy just in case.
- Removing a section break merges the sections, which may affect formatting, headers, footers, and page orientation.
- If sections have separate headers or footers, removing the section break may cause them to merge or disappear.
Section breaks in Microsoft Word are handy if you need different layouts, headers, footers, and formatting within a single document. But they might end up doing nothing, taking up space and creating blank space where there shouldn’t be some. Here’s how to remove a section break in MS Word and clean up your document formatting.
Method 1: Remove Section Breaks Using Show/Hide Feature
While removing the break itself is fairly straightforward (as it’s technically a special symbol that Word and other text processors parse as breaks), you need to be able to see it first.
Step 1. Go to the “Home” tab in your document.
Step 2. Click the “Show/Hide” button (¶ symbol) in the Paragraph group or press “Ctrl + Shift + 8.” This displays paragraph marking, including section breaks.
Step 3. Section breaks appear as dotted lines with notation on what they do, such as “Section Break (Next Page)” or “Section Break (Continuous).”
Step 4. Position your cursor at the beginning of the section break line and press “Delete” until you remove all of it. Alternatively, you can drag over the section break and remove it.
Step 5. Click on the “Show/Hide” button again to recheck formatting, as removing hidden symbols can sometimes unexpectedly alter the surrounding text.
Method 2: Remove Section Breaks With Find and Replace
If you want to know how to remove a section break in Word without leaving any breaks remaining, the only real option is mass removal through Find and Replace.
Step 1. Press “Ctrl + H” to open the Find and Replace dialog box.
Step 2. Click on “More” to expand the dialog options if they’re not already visible.
Step 3. Enter into the “Find what” field and select “Special” at the bottom of the dialog.
Step 4. Choose “Section Break” from the dropdown menu. This inserts “^b” in the “Find what” field.
Step 5. Leave the “Replace with” field empty if you want to remove all section breaks.
Step 6. Click on “Replace All” to remove all section breaks at once or use “Find Next” and “Replace” to remove them one by one.
Step 7. Hit “Close” when you’re done.
Method 3: Remove Specific Types of Section Breaks
If you need to remove only certain types of section breaks, you can use more specific search codes.
Step 1. Open the Find and Replace dialog with “Ctrl + H.”
Step 2. In the “Find what” field, enter the code corresponding to the section break you want to remove:
- “^m” for manual page breaks
- “^b” for any section break
- “^b^p” for section breaks followed by paragraph marks
Step 3. Leave “Replace with” empty and hit “Replace All.”
Method 4: Remove Section Breaks in Draft View
Draft view can make working with section breaks much easier because it displays them more clearly.
Step 1. Head to the “View” tab and select “Draft” from the Document Views group.
Step 2. Section breaks will appear as horizontal dotted lines with labels.
Step 3. Click at the beginning of the section break line and press “Delete,” or select the entire line and delete it.
Step 4. Return to “Print Layout” view when finished to see how your document looks.
Method 5: Navigate and Remove Section Breaks Using Go To
In large documents, the Go To feature can help you quickly locate section breaks.
Step 1. Press “Ctrl + G” to open the Go To dialog.
Step 2. In the “Go to what” list, select “Section.”
Step 3. Enter the section number you want to navigate to or leave it blank and click “Next” to go to the next section break.
Step 4. Click on “Show/Hide” to make the break symbol visible and delete it (as shown in Method 1).
