Page Break Basics
Page break? What’s that?
Are these questions you privately ask yourself when someone is busy talking in “computer jargon”?
Can you practically see the words flying right by you?
Well, reach out your hand and catch these two, because today we’re going to delve into the world of the mysterious page break.
To begin understanding, a page break is the point at which one page ends and another begins.
MS Word will automatically insert a page break (known as a soft break) when you fill a page with text, graphics, tables, etc.
These are good little beasts. They automatically adjust to fit your document during editing and basically take care of business.
But, there are times when you need to insert a page break manually. Maybe you’re ending one section of a document and need to start the next on a new page. Time for a page break?
Yes, it might be, but what do you do if your page is only half full? I hope you’re not thinking that you’ll hit the Enter key until Word puts you on the next page! What a nightmare that will create when you try to edit your document. That’s definitely not a good choice.
The solution?
Yep! I have one of those.
You can manually insert a page break (also known as a hard page break) in a couple of different ways.
One way is to use the Insert menu, Break choice. Then from the Break window, select Page Break and click OK.
Another, more efficient method, would be to use the key combination Ctrl + Enter.
Either way, use page breaks. Do not use the enter key to force a new page.
Okay, so now that you know some of the jargon and the basics, stay tuned to tomorrow’s tip for some of the finer points of page breaks. Controlling the beast is up next.
~ April