Sections let you change formatting mid-document, and deleting one takes a few steps
A section in Microsoft Word is a block of text with its own page setup — different margins, headers, page numbers, or column layouts than the rest of the document. When you delete a section, Word merges that text back into the section before it, and the text takes on the formatting of the remaining section. The text itself stays; only the formatting boundary disappears.
The fastest way to delete a section is to go to the Layout tab (or Page Layout in older Word versions), find the Breaks button, and delete the section break itself. Word stores section breaks as invisible characters, so once you remove the break, the section is gone.
Key Takeaways
- Section breaks are invisible formatting markers that you can see only if you turn on the display of all formatting marks in Word.
- Deleting a section means deleting the section break, not the text — the text stays but adopts the formatting of the section before it.
- You can find and delete section breaks using Find & Replace, which is faster if your document has many sections.
- If you delete a section break and the formatting changes in a way you did not expect, undo the action and check what formatting the previous section has.
Show formatting marks so you can see where sections begin and end
Before you delete anything, turn on the display of formatting marks. These invisible characters show you exactly where section breaks live. In Word, press Ctrl+* (or Cmd+* on Mac) to toggle them on. You will see paragraph marks (¶), tab marks (→), and section breaks marked as a line with the words "Section Break" and the type (Continuous, Next Page, or Odd Page).
Scroll through your document and locate the section break you want to remove. Section breaks look different from paragraph marks — they span the width of the page and are labeled. Once you can see them, deleting becomes straightforward: click right before the section break, select it, and press Delete.
Delete the section break by selecting and pressing Delete
Click at the very start of the section break line (the left edge, before the word "Section"). Hold Shift and click at the end of the line to select the entire break, or straightforward triple-click the line to select it. Then press Delete or Backspace.
The section break disappears, and the text that was in that section moves up and adopts the formatting of the section before it. If the result is not what you wanted — for example, the text now has margins or headers you did not expect — press Ctrl+Z to undo and try a different approach.
Use Find & Replace to delete multiple section breaks at once
If your document has many sections and you want to remove several breaks, Find & Replace is faster than deleting them one by one. Press Ctrl+H to open Find & Replace. In the Find field, you need to enter the code for a section break: type ^b (that is a caret followed by the letter b). Leave the Replace field empty and click Replace All.
Word will remove every section break in the document at once. This is useful if you inherited a document with unnecessary section breaks or if you want to flatten the formatting back to a single section. Be careful: if your document relies on different page setups in different sections, this will change the entire document to match the first section's formatting.
Understand what happens to formatting when you delete a section
When you delete a section break, the text in that section takes on the formatting of the section before it. This includes margins, page orientation, headers and footers, column layout, and page numbering. If the previous section has different margins than the one you are deleting, the text will shift to fit the new margins.
If you delete a section break and the formatting changes in a way you did not plan for, undo the action (Ctrl+Z) and check the formatting of the section before it. You may need to adjust that section's formatting first, or you may need to keep the section break and instead change the formatting within the section using styles or direct formatting.
Delete a section without losing custom headers or footers
Headers and footers are tied to sections. If you delete a section that has a custom header or footer, that header or footer disappears, and the text adopts the header or footer of the previous section. If you want to keep the content of a custom header or footer, copy it before you delete the section.
To copy a header or footer, double-click in the header or footer area to edit it, select all the text (Ctrl+A), copy it (Ctrl+C), and paste it into a separate document or into the header or footer of another section. Then you can safely delete the section break.
Check your document after deletion to catch unexpected changes
After you delete a section break, scroll through the document and look for formatting shifts. Pay attention to page breaks, margin changes, column layouts, and header or footer changes. If text that was in a different section now appears in a single column when it should be in two, or if page numbers restart when they should not, the section break deletion caused the change.
If the result is not correct, undo (Ctrl+Z) and reconsider your approach. You might need to delete a different section break, adjust the formatting of the remaining section first, or use a different method — such as copying the text to a new document and pasting it without formatting.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between a section break and a page break?
A page break forces text to start on a new page but keeps the same formatting. A section break starts new text on a new page (or in the same page, depending on the type) and can change formatting like margins, headers, or columns. Section breaks are more powerful but also more complex to manage.
If I delete a section break, does the text get deleted too?
No. Deleting a section break removes only the formatting boundary, not the text. The text stays in the document and adopts the formatting of the section before it. If you want to delete the text itself, you must select and delete it separately.
Can I undo a section break deletion?
Yes. Press Ctrl+Z when ready after deleting a section break to undo the action. If you have made other changes since the deletion, you can still undo, but you may undo those other changes too. If you realize the mistake much later, undo may not work — in that case, you will need to manually recreate the section break.
How do I recreate a section break if I delete it by mistake?
Go to the Layout tab, click Breaks, and choose the type of section break you need (Continuous, Next Page, Odd Page, or Even Page). Click where you want the break to start. If you are not sure what type you had, Continuous is the most common for formatting changes within a page.
Why does my document have so many sections?
Documents often accumulate sections when multiple people edit them, when you copy and paste content from other documents, or when you use templates with pre-built sections. If sections are slowing you down or making the document hard to manage, you can flatten the document by deleting all section breaks and reformatting the whole thing as one section.