How to Keep the Previous Section From Formatting in Microsoft Word

Changing Text Formatting
1. Place your cursor in your Word document anywhere on the page -- except the header or footer -- before which you want the formatting changed. Nothing on this page or any previous page will change once you set a section break.
2. Click the 'Page Layout' tab at the top of the Word ribbon. In the 'Page Setup' section in this tab, locate and click the 'Breaks' icon.
3. Scroll down to the section below 'Section Breaks,' and click the first option, 'Next Page.' This sets a section break at the bottom of the current page.
4. Move your cursor to the next page and set your formatting options as you like. The formatting changes will not affect the section prior to the section break. Note that formatting changes to headers and footers may affect the entire document, even if you set a section break.
Changing Header and Footer Formatting
5. Double-click in the header or footer area of the first page on which you wish to change the formatting. This activates the header or footer editing space.
6. Look at the right-hand margin of the header or footer, and if you see 'Same as Previous,' then the header or footer formatting is the same as on the previous page, regardless of whether you set a section break.
7. Change the formatting from this header or footer forward without affecting previous pages' headers or footers by deactivating the 'Link to Previous' setting. Click the 'Design' tab at the top of the ribbon. Locate 'Navigation' and view the 'Link to Previous' icon, which will be yellow-gold colored. Click it to turn off the linking.
8. Make the formatting changes in the current header or footer, and you'll notice that the headers and footers before this page do not change.