Project 2: AutoTools
Margins & Breaks

The AutoFormat changes have affected the way your document text is wrapping. Look at the form on the third page. The double line you created is over on the second page. The form blanks aren't with their labels. Whoops! You can make some manual changes to fix this. Tinkering can be fun!

Breaks

Breaks come in several flavors.

• line break
• text wrapping break
• soft page break
• hard page break
• column break
• section break - 
  • next page
  • continuous
  • even page
  • odd page

Most of these are found in the Break dialog, which you open from the menu   Insert  |  Break..

Line break:

A line break starts a new line without starting a new paragraph. This is useful when your paragraph style would put in too much white space between paragraphs or if you want to ensure that a certain phrase starts at the margin.

The mark for a line break looks like: .

You create one with the key combo SHIFT + ENTER.

Text-wrapping break:

  In Word 2000/2002/2003 the Break dialog includes a text wrapping break . It looks and functions a lot like a line break.

If you save your document as a web page, a text wrapping break makes the text drop below any images or tables that are aligned on the left or right margins. This jump won't show up as you view the document in Word, even in Print Preview! You must look at the page with a browser to see the difference.

Soft page break:

Word creates a soft page break every time it wraps text onto a new page. This one is automatic!

Page break:

When you want to guarantee where a new page starts, put in a hard page break. The text to the right of the cursor will be at the top of the next page no matter how much text you add or delete in front of it in the document. A hard page break is marked on the screen by a dotted line across the page with the words "Page Break". This mark won't print, of course. 

Use the Break dialog on the menu  Insert  |  Break...  or the keystroke combo CTRL + ENTER to create a page break.

Column break :

A column break forces your text into a new column, if you already have columns created. Otherwise it has the same effect as a page break.

You may lose your column breaks if you change the margins of your pages!

Section break:

A section break divides the document into sections for formatting changes. You must create a new section to change the size of margins, the number of columns, the header or footer, or the page numbering for a part of the document. A section break is marked on your display with a double dotted line and the words "Section Break" plus the type of break.

Next Page section break:  Starts the new section at the top of a new page.

Continuous section break:   Does not start a new page but allows changes within the page. This kind of break is created automatically when you create a set of columns within a page. You can use this type for indenting some text by using a wider margin.

Odd and Even breaks: For creating headers and footers that are different for odd and even pages. For example, a book might have the chapter title in the header for the right-hand page and the book title in the header of the left-hand page.

Margins

You can adjust top, bottom, and side margins by dragging the boundary on the rulers between the white and gray portions of the ruler or by using the Page Setup dialog. The ruler applies changes to the whole section, if you created any sections.

Page Setup lets you apply your changes to the whole document, the selected section, or just the selected text. Word will automatically create a section for you when you adjust the margins for selected text. Until you create a section, Word considers the whole document as one section.

~~  1 Cor. 10:31 ...whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.  ~~

Last updated: 30 Apr 2012