The Control Board Sections panel displays with a click on the third button from the left on the top toolbar:

You will use the Atlantis Sections panel to control the formatting of document sections. You might not be aware of this, but in most word processors some of the section properties of a document remain invisible to end-users. This makes it all the more difficult to understand and control section formatting. With Atlantis, things are different. All the section properties of a document are visible on the Atlantis Sections panel. Consequently, all the section properties can always be shown and adjusted in a most convenient visual way.

The Sections panel is divided up into 2 different boxes. The top box lists the sections in the active document:

As you navigate through the document window with the keyboard or mouse and go through the various document sections, the current section number is automatically highlighted in that Sections box.

To bring a section into view in the document window, you can either:

• Select a section name (number) in the Sections box and press Enter.
• Double-click the section name directly.

When a section number is selected (highlighted) in the top Sections box, the larger box below displays the corresponding Section properties:

The properties of a document section normally include Breaks, Page Settings, Columns Settings, Page Numbering, and Headers/Footers:

Each of the above categories can be expanded or collapsed to reveal or hide the corresponding properties. This can be done in 2 different ways:

• You can click the plus/minus sign on the left of each category.
• You can also double-click the category name directly.

The first set of properties - Breaks - is available only if the document contains more than 1 section. As you know, documents can include multiple sections. New sections are created by inserting section breaks. The Atlantis Sections panel gives you all details about the type of break before and after the highlighted section. Changing a section break type is as easy as ABC. You only need to click the break hyperlink in the Section properties box:

The second set of properties - Page Settings - shows the page settings currently defined for the section highlighted in the Sections box above. The section page settings are adjusted just as easily. Simply click the hyperlink of interest among the various Page Settings:

Most important!

The Page Settings category always shows the page settings currently defined for the section highlighted in the Sections box above.

However, when a continuous section break is found before a section, the pages of that section do not display in the document window with the page settings defined for that section. That section automatically displays with the page settings of the nearest section above it which does not have a continuous section break before. Note. When the nearest section above is the first section in the document, it obviously has no section break before of any kind. Its page settings are used all the same.

In other words, continuous section breaks do not allow sections to display with their own page settings. If you want sections to display with their own page settings, you have to use a break type before that is not continuous.

When a section does not display with its own page settings because of a continuous section break before, this is clearly indicated in the Page Settings properties displayed in the Atlantis Section properties box:

The third set of properties - Column Settings - shows the column settings of the section highlighted in the Sections box.

Simply click the hyperlink to change the section column settings.

The fourth set of properties - Page Numbering - shows the page numbering settings currently defined for the section highlighted in the Sections box:

As you know, "Current page number" fields can have no explicit number format (Arabic, Roman, etc). Such fields are created when you choose "Use Default Numbering" in the "Insert | Field..." dialog:

So when a field for which no number format has been specified is included in a section text or header or footer, it displays with the default number format of the host section. The Atlantis Page Numbering category shows the current "Page Numbering" properties of the section highlighted in the Sections box. Click the hyperlink to change the section "Page Numbering" properties. You can also specify the starting number used on the section first page.

The fifth set of properties - Headers/Footers - shows all the section header/footer settings:

Up to 6 individual headers and footers can be created and displayed on the different pages of a section (first page, odd and even pages). Using the Atlantis Sections panel, you can create any type of header or footer, you can view and edit them in the document window, and, if desired, you can delete them.

Important!

1. Headers and footers can be part of a section properties even when the corresponding pages do not exist in the document window. For example, an Even Page header can be available for a section which no longer includes a single even-numbered page. Even then, such headers or footers can be viewed using the Atlantis Sections panel. Note that such headers or footers are not viewed in the document window, but in a special window.

2. When a section does not have its own header or footer of a particular type, it uses the corresponding header or footer of the first section above it for which such a header or footer has been defined. The Atlantis Sections panel shows such information:

At the bottom of the Sections panel is a toolbar with a number of command buttons. You can:

• Select the whole section in the document window.
• Insert a section break to create a new section.
• Merge neighboring sections in the document.
  
  Note. When a section is merged with the next or previous section, it becomes and integral part of the target section and automatically uses its properties.

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