Section Breaks (Half Roman Numeral, half Standard numbers)

Firstly, what are 'Section Breaks'? Section breaks are ways of splitting up your document/dissertation into different 'sections', which allows you to set different headers, footers, styles, and page orientations, in addition, to what we will be setting up on this page, which will be separating the document into using roman numerals in the top half of the document, and then switching back to standard numbers at the start of your writing.

Most if not all Dissertations, require this format (roman numerals, and standard numbers), which is why we have written these instructions to help you set this up for your Dissertation in your final year/masters.

If you need to adjust your page orientation using section breaks, please see our separate guide on this process.

 

   

Video Guidance (The written guide below can be used as a transcript for the following videos)

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Preparing your document

Before we begin, we need to make a few adjustments to your document so that it is ready for the section breaks and formatting that we will apply to the document.

Inserting blank pages

First, we need to create some blank pages, this allows us to get a good idea of when we need the roman numerals to start and stop.

To insert a page, head to 'Insert' and then click 'Blank Page' about 6 times (which will provide us with 7 pages in total) (or, if you know how many pages/headings you need, you can insert that number of pages instead)

If you can't see the 'Page Break' or 'Blank Page' option on the desktop version, you can find it under the 'Pages' sub-menu.

Enabling 'Paragraph Marks'

After creating your blank pages, scroll back up to Page 1 and enable the 'Paragraph Marks' in the 'Home' tab, which is the icon of a backwards 'P' symbol in the top left of the 'Paragraph' group.

 

 

Inserting a section break

After enabling the paragraph marks, you will notice a series of these icons in addition to a line that says 'Page Break', scroll up to the first page and follow the steps below to add your first section break.

 

Place your mouse cursor at the end of the 'Page Break' line, but before the backwards 'P' and click, so that you see a blinking line at that location.

 

 

After placing your cursor in the right place, head to the 'Layout' tab and click 'Breaks' and then 'Continuous'.

 

 

After clicking 'Continuous', you should see a new line appear next to the page break that says 'Section Break (Continuous)'.

 

 

Now that we have our first section break, we need to insert one more, so scroll down to the second to last page and insert another 'Continuous' section break. (If you have 7 pages in total, this will be page 6)

 

 

Modifying the Footer

After creating our section breaks, we need to make sure that our first page/title page is separate, so to do this, scroll back up to the first page, and enter the Footer by double-clicking the bottom part of the document.

 

 

After entering the Footer, if it's not already, tick the box that says 'Different First Page' in the 'Header & Footer' tab. (You should then see your Footer change to say 'First Page Footer')

 

 

 

Preparing the footers for page numbers

To make sure there are no issues with text jumping around we need to make some changes to our Footers, as mentioned above, unless you have a 'First Page Footer' on Section 2 and 3 you can scroll past these steps below.

To begin, scroll back up to Page 2 and double-click the Footer, if it's called 'First Page Footer -Section 2-', you will need to untick the box 'Different First Page'. (If it's not, you can skip this step)

 

 

Next scroll down to your last page, which may be called 'First Page Footer -Section 3-'; if it is, perform the same task of clicking in the Footer of section 3, and unticking 'Different First Page'.

Unlinking from the previous section

Finally, we need to unlink section 2 and section 3. This can be done by clicking in the Footer and clicking 'Link to Previous' in the 'Header & Footer' tab.

 

 

Now, we can start adding page numbers (we're nearly there!)

 

Adding Roman Numerals

Scroll back up to Page 2 and double-click at the bottom part of the screen to enter the footer, then head to 'Page Number' > 'Bottom of Page' and then 'Plain Number 2'.

 

 

After inserting a page number, highlight/select the page number, then right-click the page number, and click 'Format Page Numbers...'

 

 

When the dialog loads, click the 'Start at' option towards the bottom of the dialog, and make sure it says '1', then click the 'Number Format:' dropdown, change it to Roman Numerals (i, ii, iii), and then click 'OK'.

 

 

After clicking 'OK', scroll through your document to make sure that roman numerals are counting up to as far as 'Section 3' (the last page)

 

 

Returning to standard numbers

Now that you've confirmed you have roman numerals running up to the last page, we can now add our final set of page numbers.

Scroll down to the final page and double-click to enter the Footer (which should be empty), and follow the same steps to add a page number.

Click 'Page Number' > 'Bottom of Page' and then 'Plain Number 2'.

 

When the dialog loads, click the 'Start at' option towards the bottom of the dialog, and change it to say '1', then click 'OK'.

 

 

Your page numbers have now been setup. The final step is to disable the 'Paragraph Marks' and of course, save your document if you haven't already.

First, close your 'Header & Footer' if it's not already, and then, in the 'Home' tab, click the same icon of a backwards 'P' symbol in the top left of the 'Paragraph' group to turn off 'Paragraph Marks'

 

 

And that's it, we're now done! Save your document to your student OneDrive (so that it is backed up) and you are ready to start working on your dissertation.

 

Removing and Adding pages (Optional)

As mentioned at the beginning, depending on how many headings you need, you may have inserted too many pages or not enough for the roman numerals section, in which case, the easiest way to resolve this is by once again enabling the 'Paragraph Marks' (please see above for the steps)

With the 'Paragraph Marks' on, you will be able to see where your Page and Section breaks are which is how we will add or remove pages.

Adding pages

If you need to insert more pages within the roman numerals section, scroll up to a page before the section break, for example 'Page 3 or 4', then click before the 'Paragraph Mark' (above the 'Page Break' line), and then head to the 'Insert' tab and click 'Blank Page'.

 

 

You should now find a new page has been added, scroll down to the final page to make sure that both the roman numerals are still counting correctly and that your standard numbers are still starting at 1 and haven't changed in anyway.

 

Removing pages

With the 'Paragraph Marks' on, you will be able to see where your Page and Section breaks are which is how we will add or remove pages.

If you need to remove some pages within the roman numerals section, scroll up to a page before the section break, for example 'Page 3 or 4', then place your mouse cursor at the end of the 'Page Break' line, but before the backwards 'P' and click, so that you see a blinking line at that location.

 

 

Press the backspace key on your keyboard to remove the page break, it may not look like anything has happened, however, if you scroll down, you should find you have one less page.

 

 

Once you have done this, you may need to press backspace two more times to remove the space above the page, but this is only if there is a large gap at the top of the page.

 

Firstly, what are 'Section Breaks'? Section breaks are ways of splitting up your document/dissertation into different 'sections', which allows you to set different headers, footers, styles, and page orientations, in addition, to what we will be setting up on this page, which will be separating the document into using roman numerals in the top half of the document, and then switching back to standard numbers at the start of your writing.

Most if not all Dissertations, require this format (roman numerals, and standard numbers), which is why we have written these instructions to help you set this up for your Dissertation in your final year/masters.

If you need to adjust your page orientation using section breaks, please see our separate guide on this process.

 

   

Preparing your document

Before we begin, we need to make a few adjustments to your document so that it is ready for the section breaks and formatting that we will apply to the document.

Inserting blank pages

First, we need to create some blank pages, this allows us to get a good idea of when we need the roman numerals to start and stop.

To insert a page, head to 'Insert' and then click 'Blank Page' about 6 times (which will provide us with 7 pages in total) (or, if you know how many pages/headings you need, you can insert that number of pages instead)

If you can't see the 'Page Break' or 'Blank Page' option on the desktop version, you can find it under the 'Pages' sub-menu.

Enabling 'Paragraph Marks'

After creating your blank pages, scroll back up to Page 1 and enable the 'Paragraph Marks' in the 'Home' tab, which is the icon of a backwards 'P' symbol in the top left of the 'Paragraph' group.

 

 

Inserting a section break

After enabling the paragraph marks, you will notice a series of these icons in addition to a line that says 'Page Break', scroll up to the first page and follow the steps below to add your first section break.

 

Place your mouse cursor at the end of the 'Page Break' line, but before the backwards 'P' and click, so that you see a blinking line at that location.

 

 

After placing your cursor in the right place, head to the 'Layout' tab and click 'Breaks' and then 'Continuous'.

 

 

After clicking 'Continuous', you should see a new line appear next to the page break that says 'Section Break (Continuous)'.

 

 

Now that we have our first section break, we need to insert one more, so scroll down to the second to last page and insert another 'Continuous' section break. (If you have 7 pages in total, this will be page 6)

 

 

Modifying the Footer

After creating our section breaks, we need to make sure that our first page/title page is separate, so to do this, scroll back up to the first page, and enter the Footer by double-clicking the bottom part of the document.

 

 

After entering the Footer, if it's not already, tick the box that says 'Different First Page' in the 'Header & Footer' tab. (You should then see your Footer change to say 'First Page Footer')

 

 

 

Preparing the footers for page numbers

To make sure there are no issues with text jumping around we need to make some changes to our Footers, as mentioned above, unless you have a 'First Page Footer' on Section 2 and 3 you can scroll past these steps below.

To begin, scroll back up to Page 2 and double-click the Footer, if it's called 'First Page Footer -Section 2-', you will need to untick the box 'Different First Page'. (If it's not, you can skip this step)

 

 

Next scroll down to your last page, which may be called 'First Page Footer -Section 3-'; if it is, perform the same task of clicking in the Footer of section 3, and unticking 'Different First Page'.

Unlinking from the previous section

Finally, we need to unlink section 2 and section 3. This can be done by clicking in the Footer and clicking 'Link to Previous'.

 

 

Now, we can start adding page numbers (we're nearly there!)

 

Adding Roman Numerals

After you have entered the footer, a new tab should open called 'Header & Footer', head to the 'Page Number' option towards the far left, and then click 'Page Number'.

 

 

After clicking 'Page Number' a new dialog will be displayed, when it is displayed, click the dropdown under 'Alignment' (that should say 'Right' by default), and change the option to 'Centre', and then click 'Format' in the bottom right.

 

 

When the new dialog loads, click the 'Start at' option towards the bottom of the dialog, and make sure it says '1', then click the 'Number Format:' dropdown, change it to Roman Numerals (i, ii, iii), then click 'OK' on the 'Page Number Format' dialog, and then 'OK' again to close the 'Page Numbers' dialog.

 

 

After clicking 'OK', scroll through your document to make sure that roman numerals are counting up to as far as 'Section 3' (the last page)

 

 

Returning to standard numbers

Now that you've confirmed you have roman numerals running up to the last page, we can now add our final set of page numbers.

Scroll down to the final page and double-click to enter the Footer (which should be empty), and follow the same steps to add a page number.

Click 'Page Number' option towards the far left, and then click 'Page Number'.

 

After clicking 'Page Number' a new dialog will be showed, when it is displayed, click the dropdown under 'Alignment' (that should say 'Right' by default), and change the option to 'Centre', and then click 'Format' in the bottom right.

 

 

When the dialog loads, click the 'Start at' option towards the bottom of the dialog, and change it to say '1', then click 'OK' on the 'Page Number Format' dialog, and then 'OK' again to close the 'Page Numbers' dialog.

 

 

Your page numbers have now been setup. The final step is to disable the 'Paragraph Marks' and of course, save your document if you haven't already.

First, close your 'Header & Footer' if it's not already, and then, in the 'Home' tab, click the same icon of a backwards 'P' symbol in the top left of the 'Paragraph' group to turn off 'Paragraph Marks'

 

 

And that's it, we're now done! Save your document to your student OneDrive (so that it is backed up) and you are ready to start working on your dissertation.

 

Removing and Adding pages (Optional)

As mentioned at the beginning, depending on how many headings you need, you may have inserted too many pages or not enough for the roman numerals section, in which case, the easiest way to resolve this is by once again enabling the 'Paragraph Marks' (please see above for the steps)

With the 'Paragraph Marks' on, you will be able to see where your Page and Section breaks are which is how we will add or remove pages.

Adding pages

If you need to insert more pages within the roman numerals section, scroll up to a page before the section break, for example 'Page 3 or 4', then click before the 'Paragraph Mark' (above the 'Page Break' line), and then head to the 'Insert' tab and click 'Blank Page'.

 

 

You should now find a new page has been added, scroll down to the final page to make sure that both the roman numerals are still counting correctly and that your standard numbers are still starting at 1 and haven't changed in anyway.

 

Removing pages

With the 'Paragraph Marks' on, you will be able to see where your Page and Section breaks are which is how we will add or remove pages.

If you need to remove some pages within the roman numerals section, scroll up to a page before the section break, for example 'Page 3 or 4', then place your mouse cursor at the end of the 'Page Break' line, but before the backwards 'P' and click, so that you see a blinking line at that location.

 

 

Press the backspace key on your keyboard to remove the page break, it may not look like anything has happened, however, if you scroll down, you should find you have one less page.

 

 

Once you have done this, you may need to press backspace two more times to remove the space above the page, but this is only if there is a large gap at the top of the page.