78 Section Breaks, Page Breaks and Blank Pages

Pressbooks has some special code you can inject to style your section breaks (breaks within a chapter). These are safer than other methods. Below you will find code for:

  • Regular section breaks
  • Section break with a space
  • Section break with a page break
  • Section break with glyphs
  • Forcing a page-break after, or before an element
  • Adding a blank page

Regular Section Break

This is a regular section break, usually denoted with an asterisk. To inject such a break, add the following code in the  TEXT editor:

<h3 class="section-break">***</h3>

You can add whatever you like in the between the tags and it will appear in the output, so you might want to add, say:

<h3 class="section-break">~~~</h3>

Section Break With a Space

To add a break that is just a space with nothing else, add the code:

<h3 class="section-break-space">*</h3>

The “*” will not appear in the outputs, but it’s a good idea to leave it there, for purposes of editing, and since it is always best not to have empty tags.

Section Break With a Page Break

If you want a section break that includes a page break after the break, then add:

<h3 class="section-break-page">*</h3>

Section Break With Glyphs

If you want to use an image for your section break, then you can do the following:

  1. Add the image using the Media Uploader (see Adding Images).
  2. Make sure the image is centered.
  3. Then make sure the image is wrapped in a centered image div, as follows:
<div class="centered-image">
<img alt="section-break" src="https://guide.pressbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10270/2014/02/image.png" />
</div>

NOTE: you can also add glyphs using special “wingding” fonts, but we’ve seen instances where these are not rendered correctly on Kindles, resulting in a “glyph” turning into a “letter.”

Forcing a Page-break After, or Before an Element

If you want to force a page break before an element (such as a paragraph), then you would add the following code:

<p class="page-break-before">Text text</p>

This will work on any block level element, such as a p tag, an h2 or h3 tag etc. So, for a page break after a heading you would add the following:

<h2 class="page-break-after">This is my heading!</h2>

Note: This will only work in PDF output. In ebooks, pagination is automatic & variable, and depends on user settings (font-size etc). In the web book, each chapter is a new “page.”

Adding a Blank Page

If you need to add a blank page for whatever reason (NOTE: this will only work in PDF output), then you can add the following:

<div class="blank-page">*</div>

Again, the “*” won’t be displayed, but it’s a good idea to add it there for editing purposes, and for the safety of not having empty tags.

License

Icon for the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Montgomery College Pressbooks Guide Copyright © 2012 by Book Oven Inc. (Pressbooks.com) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book