Deleting a page break in Pages

Question

Deleting a page break in Pages

I am revising a word processing document I created years ago in Microsoft Word. I no longer have Word so I opened the file in Pages 5.6.2. I work on an IMac with El Capitan 10.11.6. All has gone well except that I am unable to delete manual page breaks. With invisibles displayed, I set the cursor behind the blue break line and then click delete—nothing happens. If I double click on the break line to select it, I can then delete the line but another line with a different icon at the end replaces it. This latter line I cannot get rid of. Any help will be appreciated.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on May 21, 2018 8:29 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Barry

Level 9

60,023 points

May 21, 2018 10:24 PM in response to billfromcalgary

Hi Bill,

Try adding a few returns before and after the section break, selecting all of them (and the break in the middle of the selection), then pressing delete.

You could also try copying the break, pasting it into the Find part of Find/Replace, pasting a copied return character into the Replace box, then locating the section breaks one-at-a-time, and clicking Replace and Find next. Follow that up with repeated runs of Find: two consecutive returns Replace with: one return. Repeat until Find/Replace reports 'none found'.

If all else fails, a workaround is to select and copy the text in each section, omitting the section break, then paste in sequence into a new Pages document, adding a return after each paste.

Regards,

Barry

Reply

Answer 2

Barry

Level 9

60,023 points

May 22, 2018 8:26 PM in response to billfromcalgary

Hi Bill,

I'd guess that it represents an MS Word feature not available in Numbers.

You might find a clue to it's nature, and perhaps even its name, by opening the original document in LibreOffice or OpenOffice. Both are free to download and use (although both do request donations to support future development).

Regards,

Barry

Reply

Answer 3

May 22, 2018 10:07 AM in response to Barry

Thanks for the reply, Barry.

I have tried your first suggestion—doesn't work. The returns delete but not the line. I can't try your second suggestion because I can't select this new line (I could select the original line but when I deleted it, it was replaced with this new one). I'm afraid I'm going to have to rely on "if all else fails."

I would like to know what this line represents. The section break icon at the end has been replaced with a little square with a T inside. It's not listed with the other invisibles symbols.

Cheers,

Bill

Reply

Answer 4

May 22, 2018 9:41 PM in response to Barry

Interesting thought, Barry, but LIbreOffice appears to think the section breaks are page breaks and OpenOffice doesn't show anything. I think you're right about something in Word that just doesn't translate into Pages.

—Bill

Reply

Answer 5

May 21, 2018 10:10 PM in response to billfromcalgary

Sorry, I should have said section breaks, not page breaks. But the problem persists.

Reply

Deleting a page break in Pages

Similar questions