Section break issue. Please help. It's driving me crazy.

[Guest]

Please help, I will try to be as specific as possible in order to solve this
issue. I have posted it in some places and asked many people, but nobody
seems to really understand what the problem is let alone help me solve it. It
is not a serious problem; it's a pesky, but serious little nuisance.

The cast

-My computer. A week-old laptop with good features regarding speed, memory,
etc.
-Microsoft Word. 2002 avatar.
-Me. A 15-year Word and computer user.
-Nuisance. A persistent entity whose origins and purpose remain unknown.

The plot

I am typing a paper for school using Word. I have just finished the first
chapter, and will begin the next. I do a section break: Insert, Break,
Section break types, Next page.
I am in the next page. I am typing again. Suddenly, I wish to start a new
paragraph, so I hit enter. I hit enter but the cursor does not move to the
next line. Instead it moves one space to the right. When I start typing the
cursor moves to the next line, as intended.

If I hit enter two times in a row it moves to the next line, but still is
one space to the right. If I start typing, it will indeed move down one line,
two in total.

This is not a new nuisance, I have always experienced it. However, sometimes
when I do a next page break it doesn't happen, but once it happens in a
document it never stops.

Despair

Why does this happen? How can I stop it? It is visually unbearable. I have
experienced this normally over the years. It is no new thing or a thing that
has to do with my computer or this version of Word. It has to do with Word.

I greatly appreciate your help, if indeed it does solve this thing.
Otherwise, I appreciate your intention to help… it makes me feel as if there
will be a solution someday.

 

[Guest]

I hope someone does sort you out. All I can suggest is to be sure you're
working with your nonprinting characters showing (at least while you're
trying to troubleshoot this behavior).

You might also find things easier to see if you switch to normal view and
show your nonprinting characters.

You may be experiencing some conflict with the section break you've just
inserted.

Bear

 

[Guest]

Thank you for the information, it helps to provide more facts for the person
who will eventually crack this one.

I work in Page Layout View, and this is where the cursor does not move to
the next line but shifts one space to the right after I hit enter. When I
switch to Normal View, I see everything as it should be (i.e. when I hit
enter the cursor actually moves to the next line). Now, this is the funny
part, when I'm in Outline View, the cursor is in the next line but the little
square that indicates an "enter" does not appear. It only appears after I
start typing...

 

[Guest]

Victim:

Well, you've got me stumped. I thought maybe it was Enable Click and Type,
or perhaps Overtype mode vs. Insert mode.

If you work with your nonprinting characters showing in Page Layout view
does it exhibit that behavior?

Bear

 

[Guest]

Bear,

What are "nonprinting characters"? I couldn't find any information on this
in Word's help. Sometimes I have worked in Page Layout View and seen that
when I click enter there is an enter arrow where I click enter. Is his
"printing characters"? If so, I work with nonprinting characters, that is,
nothing is shown on the page except what I write.

Victim

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Recent versions of Word call them "formatting marks." See
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/NonPrintChars.htm

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the official term. Yes, if I work with "formatting marks" or
"nonprinting characters" showing, it continues to have this behavior.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Well, the referenced article explains how to hide them and also some reasons
why it is often helpful to be able to see them.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

Thanks for the official term. Yes, if I work with "formatting marks" or
"nonprinting characters" showing, it continues to have this behavior.

 

[Guest]

Thank you but seeing or hiding the formatting marks is not the issue. It just
helps to further information.

I am beginning to give up on this matter since nobody seems to have
experienced the same problem or really know what I am talking about, which I
find very strange because for me it has always been present in all Words in
all computers everywhere.

Anyhow, still waiting for the person to crack this one...

Thanks.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Well, since you've truncated the post to the point that I no longer recall
what the original issue was...

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Guest]

WAIT DON'T GIVE UP!!!! I share the same exact frustration you are having as I
have just searched Google to find help on this same exact issue. If I push
return after a header or bullet or a numbered item, it screws up when below
section breaks are involved and is extremely annoying!!!

 

[Guest]

Hello Kyle:

I cannot tell you how relieved I am to find, finally, someone that knows
what I am talking about. This alone makes my suffering better... I have to
tell you, I found a way around the pestilent problem (although everytime I
use it I'm haunted by the possibility that it will happen again) and I will
post it not as a reply to your post, but as a reply to myself. I really do
hope it helps you to, for I know what it's like to be caught in the
frustrations provided by some Windows peculiarities (doesn't everyone?),
which are more the frustrations of technology and this world of supposed
disconnection which we have created for ourselves, but that is a topic for
another forum. Cheers!

 

[Guest]

My dearest sectionbreakvictim:

I write to you and I write to myself. I am not a part of you, and you are
not a part of me. Since the beginning of your quest, I have been you, and at
long last the opportunity to present you with the gift of enlightenment has
come: you, or rather, I am always my own solution.

Yet, I must make it clear: this does not confront and subjugate the problem,
it travels a different path.

It is simple:

Instead of doing a break to the next page by Insert/Break/Section break
types/Next page, do it by Insert/Break/Break types/Next page.

The infamous Nuisance has been taken care of.

In addition, I do not know (I told you we were the same) what differences
exist among breaking to the next page by a section break and doing it by a
"regular" break.

But, alas, we never do finish knowing, so rest your head on my shoulder,
your shoulder, and sleep, and dream again.

Sincerely,
sectionbreakvictim