ARCHIVED: In Microsoft Word, what are sections?

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Sections are subdivisions of a document. Once a document is divided into sections, you can make formatting changes that apply only to one section. For instance, you can change the page orientation or the number of columns for just one section.

Sections are separated with section breaks. In Microsoft Word 2010 and 2011, to insert a break:

In Word for Windows, from the Page Layout tab, click the Breaks drop-down menu.
In Word for Mac OS X, from the Insert menu, select Break.

At this point, you have several options for section breaks:

To start the new section on the next page, in Word for Windows, choose Next page. In Word for Mac OS X, choose Section Break (Next Page).
If you do not want the section break to start a new page, in Word for Windows, choose Continuous. In Word for Mac OS X, choose Section Break (Continuous).
To start the new section on the next odd- or even-numbered page, in Word for Windows, choose Even page or Odd page. In Word for Mac OS X, choose Section Break (Even Page) or Section Break (Odd Page).

Note: Sections must start on new lines. You cannot have a section break in the middle of a line of text. If you insert one in the middle of a line of text, Word will make the text after the section break appear on a new line.