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Section Breaks (Half Roman Numeral, half Standard numbers)

Section Breaks

On this page, you will learn how to create Section Breaks in order to create half roman numerals and half standard numbers for your dissertations.

OS Selection

  Hint: Use this to change the instructions for your particular device (it will save your setting automatically)

  Section Breaks

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.

 

 Note: This section assumes that you have already familiarised yourself with the tools mentioned in the previous sections of this guide, e.g., page breaks, creating page numbers, headings, and table of contents.

You will be walked through each step, but it is recommended that you familiarise yourself with using the tools in Word before following these steps, as setting up this particular format can be quite daunting, so please make sure you create some time (about 10 minutes) to follow these steps and take it slowly, we'll get through this!
   
  Hint: Both a written and video version of the guidance can be found below, the written version was used a script for the video, so you can use whichever format suits you best :)

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




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.

 Note: There is technically not a standard format for what headings you need to include on your dissertation, so please refer to your Module Handbook, however, in most cases, it is safe to say that you will need about 5 - 7 pages, however, you can either create more, or remove pages after this setup if needed, and you'll be shown that at the very end.

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)

  Hint: If you don't see the button under the 'Insert' menu on the desktop version, it may be under a sub-menu called 'Pages' click this first. (A screenshot can be found under the screenshot below)
A screenshot of the insert tab in Word, displaying the location of the blank page and page break buttons.

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.

A screenshot of the insert tab in Word, displaying the location of the ‘pages’ sub-menu, which is expanded to display the blank page and page break buttons.

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.

 

A screenshot of Word displaying the location of the Paragraph Mark button on the ‘Home’ tab.

 

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.


A screenshot of Word displaying an example of the Page Break line.

 

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.

 

A screenshot of Word with an arrow pointing at the end of the Page Break line to indicate where the cursor should be placed.

 

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

 

A screenshot of Word displaying the location of the ‘Breaks’ menu, which is expanded to display the location of the ‘Continuous’ option under the ‘Layout’ tab.

 

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

 

A screenshot of Word displaying an example of an inserted section break.

 

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)

  Hint: If you're unsure on how to do this, please follow the same steps above starting from 'Place your mouse cursor at the end' (this is because the steps are exactly the same, even if you're on your second to last page)

 

A screenshot of Word displaying a section break which has been added to the second to last page, this being page 6 of 7.

 

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.

 

A screenshot of Word displaying an open footer.

 

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')

 

A screenshot of Word displaying the location of the ‘Different First Page’ tick box on the ‘Header & Footer’ tab.

 

 

Preparing the footers for page numbers

 Note: Double-click on your Footer on Page 2 (or scroll to Page 2 if the Footer is already open), and if it doesn't say 'First Page Footer -Section 2-', you can scroll down to the part 'Unlinking from previous section'.

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)

 Note: Make sure you are on Page 2/Section 2 when you do this to make sure that your first page remains separate.

 

A screenshot of Word displaying the location of the ‘Different First Page’ tick box on the ‘Header & Footer’ tab and the label of the Footer for section 2, which is a First Page Footer.

 

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.

 

A screenshot of Word displaying the location of the ‘Link to Previous’ button on 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'.

 Note: Make sure you are on Page 2/Section 2 when doing this so that your page numbers start from Page 2.

 

A screenshot of the ‘Header & Footer’ tab on Word showing the location of the Page Number button, which is expanded to display the Bottom of page, Plain number 2 option.

 

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

 

A screenshot displaying the ‘Format Page Numbers’ option on a right-click menu.

 

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'.

 

A screenshot of the ‘Page Number Format’ dialog displaying the location of the ‘Start at’ option, the number format dropdown, which is expanded to select the roman numerals, and the ‘OK’ button.

 

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)

 Note: The screenshot below has been purposely zoomed out to show how the format should look.

 

A zoomed-out screenshot of all the pages in a Word document to display the page numbers only appearing on page 2, 3, 4, and 5.

 

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'.

 

A screenshot of the ‘Header & Footer’ tab on Word showing the location of the Page Number button, which is expanded to display the Bottom of page, Plain number 2 option.

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

 

A screenshot of the ‘Page Number Format’ dialog displaying the location of the ‘Start at’ option.

 

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'

 

A screenshot of Word displaying the location of the Paragraph Mark button on the ‘Home’ tab.

 

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'.

  Please Explain: The reason why we need to insert the page before the section break is just to avoid potentially messing around with the page numbers, as it may possibly cause them to either shift, or cause the standard numbers to reset/move to the wrong page.

 

A screenshot of Word displaying a selected ‘Insert’ tab and the location of the ‘Blank Page’ button, in addition to displaying the cursor positioned to the left of the first paragraph mark at the top of the 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.

 

A zoomed-out screenshot of Word, displaying an arrow pointing at the end of the Page Break line to indicate where the cursor should be placed, in addition to an arrow pointing at the bottom of the page to display page 4 out of 5 in roman numerals.

 

  Hint: Take a note of how many roman numerals you currently have, in the example image above there are 5, this way you'll be able to confirm if the page has been removed.

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.

 

A zoomed-out screenshot of Word displaying the page breaks that have been moved to the previous page to indicate a page was removed.

 

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.

 

  Section Breaks

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.

 

 Note: This section assumes that you have already familiarised yourself with the tools mentioned in the previous sections of this guide, e.g., page breaks, creating page numbers, headings, and table of contents.

You will be walked through each step, but it is recommended that you familiarise yourself with using the tools in Word before following these steps, as setting up this particular format can be quite daunting, so please make sure you create some time (about 10 minutes) to follow these steps and take it slowly, we'll get through this!
   

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.

 Note: There is technically not a standard format for what headings you need to include on your dissertation, so please refer to your Module Handbook, however, in most cases, it is safe to say that you will need about 5 - 7 pages, however, you can either create more, or remove pages after this setup if needed, and you'll be shown that at the very end.

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)

  Hint: If you don't see the button under the 'Insert' menu on the desktop version, it may be under a sub-menu called 'Pages' click this first. (A screenshot can be found under the screenshot below)
A screenshot of the insert tab in Word, displaying the location of the blank page and page break buttons.

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.

A red box and a red arrow highlighting and pointing at the 'Insert' tab on the desktop version of Word for Mac, which is currently selected. Another red box and red arrow is pointing and highlighting the 'Pages' sub-menu for screens that are too small to display the options, this menu is currently expanded in the screenshot. A final red box and red arrow is pointing and highlighting both the 'Blank Page' and 'Page Break' options.

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.

 

A screenshot of Word displaying the location of the Paragraph Mark button on the ‘Home’ tab.

 

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.


A screenshot of Word displaying an example of the Page Break line.

 

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.

 

A screenshot of Word with an arrow pointing at the end of the Page Break line to indicate where the cursor should be placed.

 

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

 

A screenshot of Word displaying the location of the ‘Breaks’ menu, which is expanded to display the location of the ‘Continuous’ option under the ‘Layout’ tab.

 

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

 

A screenshot of Word displaying an example of an inserted section break.

 

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)

  Hint: If you're unsure on how to do this, please follow the same steps above starting from 'Place your mouse cursor at the end' (this is because the steps are exactly the same, even if you're on your second to last page)

 

A screenshot with a red box and a red arrow pointing and highlighting the added 'Section Break (Continuous)', which is next to the pre-existing 'Page Break', additionally, there is also an orange box highlighting the page numbers, to show that this section break has been added on page 6 of 7.

 

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.

 

A screenshot of Word displaying an open footer.

 

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')

 

A screenshot of Word displaying the location of the ‘Different First Page’ tick box on the ‘Header & Footer’ tab.

 

 

Preparing the footers for page numbers

 Note: Double-click on your Footer on Page 2 (or scroll to Page 2 if the Footer is already open), and if it doesn't say 'First Page Footer -Section 2-', you can scroll down to the part 'Unlinking from previous section'.

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)

 Note: Make sure you are on Page 2/Section 2 when you do this to make sure that your first page remains separate.

 

A screenshot of Word displaying the location of the ‘Different First Page’ tick box on the ‘Header & Footer’ tab and the label of the Footer for section 2, which is a First Page Footer.

 

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'.

 

A screenshot of Word displaying the location of the ‘Link to Previous’ button on the ‘Header & Footer’ tab.

 

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'.

 Note: Make sure you are on Page 2/Section 2 when doing this so that your page numbers start from Page 2.

 

A screenshot of the ‘Header & Footer’ tab on Word showing the location of the Page Number button, which is expanded to display the Page number option.

 

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.

 

A screenshot of the Page Numbers dialog showing the alignment dropdown.
A screenshot of the Page Numbers dialog showing the expanded alignment dropdown and location of the Centre option, in addition to the location of the ‘Format’ button.

 

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.

 

A screenshot of the ‘Page Number Format’ dialog displaying the location of the ‘Start at’ option, the number format dropdown, which is expanded to select the roman numerals, and the ‘OK’ button.

 

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)

 Note: The screenshot below has been purposely zoomed out to show how the format should look.

 

A zoomed-out screenshot of all the pages in a Word document to display the page numbers only appearing on page 2, 3, 4, and 5.

 

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'.

 

A screenshot of the ‘Header & Footer’ tab on Word showing the location of the Page Number button, which is expanded to display the Page number option.

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.

 

A screenshot of the Page Numbers dialog showing the alignment dropdown.
A screenshot of the Page Numbers dialog showing the expanded alignment dropdown and location of the Centre option, in addition to the location of the ‘Format’ button.

 

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.

 

A screenshot of the ‘Page Number Format’ dialog displaying the location of the ‘Start at’ option.

 

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'

 

A screenshot of Word displaying the location of the Paragraph Mark button on the ‘Home’ tab.

 

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'.

  Please Explain: The reason why we need to insert the page before the section break is just to avoid potentially messing around with the page numbers, as it may possibly cause them to either shift, or cause the standard numbers to reset/move to the wrong page.

 

A screenshot of Word displaying a selected ‘Insert’ tab and the location of the ‘Blank Page’ button, in addition to displaying the cursor positioned to the left of the first paragraph mark at the top of the 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.

 

A zoomed-out screenshot of Word, displaying an arrow pointing at the end of the Page Break line to indicate where the cursor should be placed, in addition to an arrow pointing at the bottom of the page to display page 4 out of 5 in roman numerals.

 

  Hint: Take a note of how many roman numerals you currently have, in the example image above there are 5, this way you'll be able to confirm if the page has been removed.

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.

 

A zoomed-out screenshot of Word displaying the page breaks that have been moved to the previous page to indicate a page was removed.

 

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.

 

  Next Steps: Now that you've gone through Section Breaks, you can look at the optional step about Bullet Points & Numbered Lists.

  Section Breaks

 Note: Unfortunately, it is not possible to create section breaks on the online version, in order to do this, you will need access to the desktop version of the apps.
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This guide was last updated: Jun 6, 2025 2:51 PM