Section break causes an unexpected page break in Word

In Microsoft Word, when you insert a section break into a page, a page break may be inserted instead.

Note This behavior occurs in Print Layout view but does not reflect an added page break in Normal view until the document is paginated with added page numbers or you switch views from Normal to Print Layout and back to Normal. Although the continuous section break is still displayed in Normal view, the page numbers reflect the added page break.

This behavior can occur when you insert a Continuous section break into the same page in which you have inserted a footnote, and the section break appears after the footnote.

The new page is created to prevent footnotes (or endnotes) from two different sections of the document from being displayed on the same page.

The continuous section break is sometimes used to change the number of columns that appear on a single page. For example, the top half of a page may have one column while the bottom half of the page has two columns.

If you apply a footnote to the bottom of the first half of a page, and then use a Continuous section break to start a two-column section on the same page, Word automatically creates a second page for the two-column section.

Note The following steps will work for a single-column section. The steps will not work for a multicolumn section.

To resolve this issue in Microsoft Office Word 2003 or in Microsoft Word 2002, follow these steps:

1. Open the document.
2. On the Tools menu, click Options.
3. On the Compatibility tab, click to select the Lay out footnotes like Word 6.x/95/97 check box under Options, and then click OK.

To resolve this issue in Microsoft Office Word 2007, follow these steps:

1. Click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click Word Options.
2. In the left pane, click Advanced.
3. In the right pane, expand Layout Options under Compatibility, click to select the Lay out footnotes the way Word 6.x/95/97 does check box, and then click OK.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.