Section Break must be part and parcel of every document editors, no matter whether it’s Google Docs, MS Word or any other document editor. Google Docs was lacking this feature initially but later got it.

Let’s see how to use section breaks in Google Docs to insert section-wise page numbering, section-wise headers/footers, and section-wise page align (margins).

You can see the tips to do the same after the introduction to this Docs page setup related feature.

What is Section Break in Docs Document Editor and How to Insert, View and Delete It?

Section breaks are similar to the page breaks. Using page breaks, we can start new pages, for example, new chapters.

The same is possible with section break too even though the purpose of the section break is different.

What is the purpose of the section break in Google Docs then?

As I have already mentioned, with section breaks we can apply different page setups to different sections in Google Docs.

Inserting Section Breaks

There are two types of section breaks in Google Docs. They are;

• Section break (next page).
• Section break (continues).

To insert a section break in Google Docs, no matter whether it’s the ‘next page’ or ‘continues’, please follow the below steps.

Assume I have a document opened/created in Google Docs in which the first page contains a table of content, the second-page is Chapter 1, and the third page is Chapter 2 and so on.

On the second page, there is an organizational chart. I want to put this chart in a new section to change the margin without affecting other content. Actually, I want to stretch the chart to left and right side of the page.

For that, I may require to insert two section breaks. One before the chart and one after the chart. Here is how to insert a section break in Google Docs.

As per the screenshot, I have two section breaks (continues) inserted. See the blue dotted lines marked (to know how to see section breaks represented by blue dots, please scroll down to the next subtitle).

To insert the first section break, I clicked just before the text “Organizational”, I mean, placed the cursor before the letter “O”. Then I’ve clicked Section breaks (continues) under the Insert menu, Breaks.

The second section break inserted by clicking before the text “An”, i.e. just after the Org. Chart.

If you select Section break (next page) the chart will be placed on a new page.

Viewing and Deleting Section Breaks

To view section breaks, go to the menu ‘View’ and click on ‘Section breaks’. To delete, simply click at the beginning of the dotted line and hit the delete button.

Different Margin Settings for Pages in Google Docs

Here is an example of how to set different left, right, top, and bottom margins for pages in Google Docs.

Steps:

1. Insert section breaks as above.
2. Then go to the File menu and click on ‘Page setup’.
3. Select the section and set the margins.

I have changed the left and right margins of Section 2 (Organizational chart) to stretch the chart as below.

Get Different Headers/Footers in Google Docs Using Section Breaks

Here is another example of how to use Section breaks in Google Docs.

We can tame the Header and Footer in Google Docs using the Section break. As a side note, to insert Header and Footer, go to Insert > Header & Footers.

Now let me explain how to get different headers in a Google Docs document. The same steps you can use to insert different footers.

Let’s consider the earlier example, I mean Section breaks for the “Organizational chart”. Here use Section break (next page) instead of Section break (continues). So the section (chart) will be placed on a new page.

Then go to the page containing the chart and click Insert > Headers & footers > Header. Uncheck “Link to previous” and then type your header for the page.

Don’t forget to click on the “Options” next to “Link to previous” (see the image above) which will help you align the header from the top (Options drop-down> Header format).

Another useful option within this ‘Header format’ is “Apply to”.

Apply to “This section” (section #) will apply the header to the current section. As per example, it’s the page containing the chart.

Enabling “This section on” will apply the new header to the current section onwards to the end of the document.

How to Restart Page Numbering in Google Docs

Do you know how to use the section break to restart page numbering in Google Docs? Read on to get how to do that in Docs.

Using the menu Insert > Page numbers we can insert page numbers in Google Sheets. You will see the below four icons, two each for Header and Footer, under the submenu ‘Page numbers’.

Which one to use to insert page numbers?

If your document contains a cover page (normally the first page that contains document title and author’s name) you can start numbering from the second page onwards, else from the very first page. I hope the above icons (see the screenshot above) are self-explanatory.

Additional options like whether to start at 0 or a different number are available under the menu Insert > Page numbers > More options. For the time being, let’s leave that aside.

How to restart page numbering at a given page in Google Docs?

To restart page numbering at a given page in Google Docs, follow the below steps.

1. Go to, I mean click on the first page on your document and click on Insert > Page numbers and click on the Header/Footer icon you want.
2. Then go to the page where you want to restart the new page numbering.
3. At the bottom of the previous page, click to place the cursor at the end of the text in the last line.
4. Then Insert > Break > Section break (Continuous).
5. Double click on the header (page number) on the next page where you want to restart numbering.
6. Then click Options Drop-down > Page numbers and enable “Start at” and insert 0 in the field against “Start at”.
7. Finally, click “Apply”.

That’s all about how to use Section Break in Google Docs. Enjoy!