w:sectType (Section Type)

Specifies how a section break is rendered — whether the next section starts on the next page, an even/odd page, the next column, or continues on the same page.

Parent elements

w:sectPr

Description

w:sectType defines the type of section break that separates the current section from the next. It controls both the visual rendering and the pagination behavior.

It is defined in ECMA-376 Part 1 §17.6.22.

Attributes

Attribute	Type	Possible Values	Description
`w:val`	`ST_SectionMark`	`nextPage`, `continuous`, `evenPage`, `oddPage`, `nextColumn`	The type of section break.

Values

Value	Description
`nextPage`	The new section starts on the next page (default).
`continuous`	The new section starts on the same page, with no page break. Used for multi-column layouts.
`evenPage`	The new section starts on the next even-numbered page.
`oddPage`	The new section starts on the next odd-numbered page.
`nextColumn`	The new section starts in the next column of the current page.

Examples

<!-- Continuous section break — used for column layout changes -->
<w:sectPr>
  <w:sectType w:val="continuous"/>
  <w:pgSz w:w="12240" w:h="15840"/>
</w:sectPr>

using DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Wordprocessing;

var sectPr = new SectionProperties(
    new SectionType { Val = SectionMarkValues.Continuous },
    new PageSize { Width = 12240U, Height = 15840U }
);

Notes

The final w:sectPr in a document (inside w:body, not inside a w:pPr) has no “next section”; its w:sectType is effectively ignored.
w:sectType is absent from the last section’s w:sectPr in most Word documents.
Choosing evenPage or oddPage may insert a blank page if the current page already has the target parity.