Word allows you to add several types of section breaks into your document. Two of the section break types result in the addition of blank pages to the document, if necessary. For instance, if you use an Odd Page section break, and the previous section ends on an odd page, then Word automatically inserts a blank even page so that the next section can start on the next odd page.
The problem with this is that Word inserts an absolutely blank page—it doesn't even print headers or footers on the page. If you prefer headers and footers or some other information on the page (such as "This page intentionally left blank"), then you cannot rely on Word's section breaks alone.
One approach is to manually look at a document and, if necessary, add your own invisible text that would "print" on the page that would otherwise be blank. You create invisible text by adding regular text and formatting it as white. White on white, when printed, is invisible. Word, however, doesn't realize this and provides headers and footers on the "blank" page.
An interesting approach is to create your own end-of-section standard text. Create an AutoText entry that contains your end-of-section text, including a page break at the beginning of the entry. Name the entry something like "BLANKPAGE." Then, at the end of each section, just before the section break, add the following compound field:
{ if { =int( {page} / 2 ) * 2 } = { page } " " { autotext "BLANKPAGE" } }
Remember that the braces shown in this example are supposed to be field braces. You enter field braces by pressing Ctrl+F9 for each set. The field checks to see if the current page is, in this case, even. If it is, then the field automatically inserts your AutoText information.
If desired, you can also create a macro that will step through the document, look at each section, decide how many pages are in the section, and then add a page break at the end of the section, if necessary. The following macro does this very task:
Sub CheckSecLen() Dim iSec As Integer Dim oRng As Range Dim iValue As Integer With ActiveDocument ' go through each section (except for the last one) For iSec = 1 To .Sections.Count - 1 ' create a range object at the start of the section Set oRng = .Sections(iSec).Range oRng.Collapse wdCollapseStart ' insert a sectionpages field .Fields.Add Range:=oRng, Type:=wdFieldSectionPages ' divide the sectionpages field by 2 ' if it gives a zero as the remainder, then ' you have an even number of pages in the section, ' which is what you want with an odd section page break If (.Sections(iSec).Range.Fields(1).Result Mod 2) <> 0 Then ' if you have an odd number of pages, then insert ' a page break before the section's section break Set oRng = .Sections(iSec).Range With oRng .Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseEnd .MoveEnd unit:=wdCharacter, Count:=-1 .InsertBreak Type:=wdPageBreak End With End If ' remove the sectionpages field that was added .Sections(iSec).Range.Fields(1).Delete Next iSec End With End Sub
Note:
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2018-05-21 15:15:52
Hello, Scott. Sounds like you're working on a military technical manual of some kind. I had this exact same issue and developed conditional footers that addressed the problem. Of course, it also caused problems with page numbers in the TOC, which I had to address using a hidden SEQ field before the visible Chapter heading.
Set up your sections with "different odd and even" footers. Obviously unlink your footers from any other sections in the document. Then, you can enter the footer text as shown for odd pages: "{ If { SectionPages } > { PAGE } "{ STYLEREF "Heading 1"
\t }-{ PAGE }" } { If { SectionPages } = { PAGE } ”{ STYLEREF "Heading 1"
\t }-{ PAGE }/({ STYLEREF ”Heading 1"
\t }-{ ={ PAGE} + 1 } blank)" }. For even pages, just enter the first part:
{ If { SectionPages } > { PAGE } "{ STYLEREF "Heading 1"
\t }-{ PAGE }"
The result looks like this on the last odd page of Chapter 1: 1-13/(1-14 blank). For your document, substitute your section header style name in the STYLEREF expression (or substitute your calculation). I'm assuming you have sections 1-3 as front matter and content begins with section 4.
I developed this based on Greg Maxey's work (google him to find his page) and he deserves credit for the basis if my approach. If you find you can improve on my approach, please share. Also, feel free to e-mail me directly if you need to.
Best wishes,
Michael
2018-04-04 08:51:47
Scott
I'm creating a Manual that is separated into Work Packages.
I'm using Field Codes to control the auto numbering of each Work Package based on the Section Number.
the page number format has to contain the Work Package Number - Page number.
I've used the following Field Code combination to do this.
{ ={ SECTION }-4 \# 0000 \*MERGEFORMAT }-{ PAGE |* Arabic \* MERGEFORMAT }
This works great, and automatically adjusts for each new section.
My problem "NOW" is at the end of each Work Package (section) if the last page is Odd and the next page is blank. the last Odd page number has to have " /blank" after the page number e.g. 0023-5/blank
I can't use the typical section break method to control the unique last page number, because this will create a cascading affect with my use of the SECTION Field Code to control the next section Work Package number.
Is there a custom filed code formula that will make this work without affecting the rest of the page numbering in the document.
I only want the /blank to appear on the last page of a section if the real last page is blank.
2016-05-18 16:23:51
This works beautifully; however, I had to add:
.InsertParagraph after the .InsertBreak method. Without it, Word 2013 was still inserting a blank page.
I also added:
.InsertAfter "<blank page text>" to insert a message.
Thanks for posting this macro. Saved me a great deal of time.
2013-10-12 21:11:13
AutoText in a field is static and doesn’t travel with its document if copied alone to a different computer, so it presents reuse issues.
I use an embedded compound field/macro combination somewhat like that in the WordTip. It references the current chapter heading in a style that places the message centered with 216 points of Space Before and the chapter name placed in bold. Thus, I get a message placed just above mid-page saying, for example:
This page concludes
Site Requirements.
Such a message is true, brief, and without controversy--unlike the self-falsifying "This page intentionally left blank," which can generate semantic disonance that distracts some readers.
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