Starting a New Section on an Odd Page Number

When writing a document that is divided into sections or chapters, it is not unusual to have each new chapter or section start on an odd-numbered page. Word makes it very easy to accommodate this need when you are creating a document. You control this through the use of sections. All you need to do is create a new document section whenever you want to start a new chapter in your document. Follow these steps:

1. Position the insertion point where you want the new chapter or section to begin.
2. Choose Break from the Insert menu. Word displays the Break dialog box. (See Figure 1.)



Figure 1. The Break dialog box.

3. Make sure you choose the Odd Page radio button.
4. Click on OK. Word inserts a section break into your document.

Anything that is typed immediately after the section break will appear on an odd-numbered page when printed. If necessary, Word inserts a blank page between information in the previous section and the information in the new section to achieve this directive.

If you already have your document divided into sections (you have already inserted section breaks, in other words), you can make sure that a section will start on an odd-numbered page by following these steps:

1. Place the insertion point in the section that you want to start on an odd-numbered page.
2. Choose Page Setup from the File menu. Word displays the Page Setup dialog box.
3. Make sure the Layout tab is selected. (See Figure 2.)



Figure 2. The Layout tab of the page Setup dialog box.

4. Using the Section Start drop-down list, choose Odd Page.
5. Click on OK.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (634) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Starting a New Section on an Odd Page Number.