Creating page breaks using the pilcrow

I ran into an interesting problem a while ago where I needed to explain to an Apple Mac user how to begin each chapter on a new page in a report using page breaks: and why inserting page breaks is necessary.

Once upon a time, to finish a paragraph on a typewriter, we would enter a hard return (i.e. "Enter" on the keyboard). To end a page or a chapter, we would take that page out of the machine, and start typing on a fresh page. The same principles apply with PCs. To finish a paragraph we enter a hard return; to create a new page or chapter we enter a page break.

If we toggle on the Pilcrow - or paragraph mark - icon in Word (that's the one that looks like this: ¶), we will suddenly see all the hidden printer codes. Check out the following sentence:

Codes on and codes off

Codes·on·and·codes·off·¶

What is this "pilcrow"? Well, in an early clear definition of what the pilcrow is appears as "Formerly [...] they used this Figure ¶ termed a Pilcrow, and by the Printers, Paragraph" (Simpson & Weiner, 1989, p. 190, citing Miege, 1691, p. 126). A pilcrow is a diacritical - aka letter short code - for 'paragraph'. Just as a "." is a diacritical for a full stop; a "," is a comma, etc (read more on diacriticals here). Decker reports that the Pilcrow is apparently also known as the "alinea" (2023), but I was unable to find "alinea" in the Oxford English Dictionary.

So, to come back to our topic, why do we need to worry about putting in page breaks? In the documents that we view on our own screen, what appears to be the start of a new chapter - effectively a page break - is not necessarily what it seems. Depending on our screen resolution, our printer set up, and our default paper size, what seems to be a new page or chapter may well be simply the fortuitous end to a run of text.

When we open our document on another machine, the document will be repaginated according to the current machine settings, shifting page layouts. To make matters worse, some users do not understand that popping in a few hard returns - Enter Enter Enter etc - to move the text down to the next page is not the equivalent of a page break. On a long document on a different machine, text for a new page may turn up at the bottom of a page.

Inserting a page or chapter break in Word is super easy. Just key "Ctrl & Enter" on the keyboard. We can check that we have inserted a page break by toggling on the Pilcrow. We will see the following printer code:

·······················page break·······················¶

Toggle off, and we see merely our text once more. This is very handy to ensure that our documents are formatted just as we would like them to be. And those page breaks should not change when opening the document on a new machine.

Sam

References:

Custom Guide. (2021). Page Break in Word: How to Add and Remove Page Breaks in Word. https://www.customguide.com/word/page-break-in-word

Decker, E. (2023, March 30). 3 Ways to Remove Paragraph Symbol (¶) in Word. https://techcult.com/remove-paragraph-symbol-%C2%B6-in-word/

Simpson, J. A., & Weiner, E. S. C. (Ed.) (1989). Oxford English Dictionary (2nd ed., Vol XI Ow-Poisant). Clarendon Press.