Chapter on a right-hand page before double-sided printing

Key points at a glance

Right-hand chapter openings apply only when your handbook requires them for double-sided printing.
In Word you insert an odd-page section break, not a stack of empty paragraphs.
The blank page has to exist in the PDF. File pages 1, 3 and 5 fall on the right.
After the break, check page numbers, the header and the updated table of contents.

Chapter on a right-hand page: what the handbooks require

Some departments want every main chapter on a new right-hand page. Others want any new page. Others say nothing. The three handbooks below show the first pattern. They apply only there. They do not apply to your thesis unless your own handbook says the same thing.

The Chair for Programming and Software Engineering at LMU Munich requires A4 and double-sided printing. Each listed part of the thesis, and every chapter, starts on a right-hand page. Page 1 is the first page of the main text. Earlier pages, including the declaration, abstract, acknowledgements and contents, should use Roman numerals. The page number sits on the outer edge.

The thesis notes by Prof. Dr. Robert Gabriel, Prof. Dr. Carsten Herbes, Prof. Dr. Sebastian Moll and Prof. Dr. Iris Ramme at Nürtingen-Geislingen University, dated February 2022, also require double-sided printing. New top-level chapters always start on an odd page.

The formatting sheet of the Institute of Controlling and Management Accounting at Helmut Schmidt University Hamburg starts the dedication, preface, contents, list of figures and list of abbreviations on an odd page. For the dedication, preface and those lists it explicitly says the right-hand page. For longer texts, level-1 headings in the main text start on an odd page as well. Do not copy its type sizes or margins. The sheet gives fixed left and right margins, not a mirrored inner margin.

The guide of the Institute of Sanitary Engineering and Waste Management at Leibniz University Hannover is different. A new main chapter starts on a new page. Subsections do not. A right-hand page is not required. The preface says to agree formal rules with the supervisor. The text is adapted from a guide at Bingen University of Applied Sciences dated 11 July 2011. It only shows that “new page” and “right-hand page” are different instructions.

Insert an odd page section break in Word

A normal page break only pushes the chapter onto the following page. If that page is a verso, the chapter starts on the left. An odd page section break starts the new section on the next odd page in Word. Microsoft documents this for desktop Word on Windows and Mac. Word for the web cannot insert section breaks yet. Use Open in Word and edit in the desktop app.

The Mac instructions give the number: an odd page section break at the end of page 3 starts the next section on page 5. The Windows instructions name the same break and say it starts on the next odd-numbered page, without that example. If your chapter already ends on an even page, the following page is already odd. Whether Word then adds another blank page is something you see on the heading and later in the PDF.

Place the cursor at the end of the previous chapter, directly before the new chapter heading.
Go to Layout, Breaks, and choose the Odd Page section break.
Show paragraph marks with Ctrl+Shift+8 on Windows or Command+8 on Mac. Draft view, on the View tab, makes the section break easier to find.
Leave subsections such as 2.1 in the running text when the handbook only moves the top level to a new or right-hand page.

Empty paragraphs are not a substitute. They move as soon as you add a sentence, and they do not create an odd page. “Page break before” on the Heading 1 style, covered in the guide to page breaks in Word, only starts the next page. That is enough when the handbook does not ask for a right-hand page. Do not delete an intentional blank page just because it looks empty. Microsoft notes that Next Page, Odd Page and Even Page breaks can create a blank page. Deleting a section break in the middle of a document can change the formatting of the sections that follow.

Check the blank page before the chapter in the PDF

What gets printed is the exported PDF, not the Word window. A blank page that exists only there, or that is missing there, does not reach the sheet. Export through the usual PDF export and read the file page by page, ideally in a two-page view.

Example: chapter 2 ends on Arabic page 17. If numbering has run from the first file page, 17 is an odd position and sits on the right. An ordinary page break puts chapter 3 on page 18, the left-hand back of that sheet. With the odd-page section break, chapter 3 starts on page 19. Page 18 is the blank page before the chapter. That page has to be its own page in the PDF. Otherwise chapter 3 prints on the left, and every later pair shifts with it.

The sheet side follows the file order, not the numeral in the footer. PDF pages 1, 3 and 5 fall on the right, and pages 2, 4 and 6 on the left, when printing starts on the front of the first sheet. You check the same sequence when choosing single- or double-sided printing. If the new section restarts Arabic numbering at 1, the page can say “1” and still sit on the left when it is file page 2, 4 or 6. Count PDF pages from the start of the file.

With single-sided printing every printed side is a front. Extra blank PDF pages then become almost empty sheets. Use the odd-page break only when the thesis is actually printed double-sided and the handbook asks for the right-hand page.

What you see in the PDF	What it means when printing double-sided
Chapter heading on file page 1, 3 or 5	The chapter opening sits on the right
Chapter heading on file page 2, 4 or 6	The chapter opening sits on the left, on the back
Empty even position directly before the chapter	Intentional verso, so the next chapter starts on the right
Blank page in Word only, not in the PDF	Export again and compare the PDF page count with Word

Check page numbers after the section break

A section break divides the document. Page numbers after the section break may continue or restart, depending on the setting in that section. Open the header or footer on the first page of the new chapter and on the blank page before it. The number has to match your handbook: continuous, or, as at LMU, Roman numerals until the main text and Arabic numerals from page 1. The guide to page numbers in Word shows how to change the sequence at a section break.

A double-sided chapter opening also means the page number should not slide into the gutter. LMU places the number on the outer edge: on the right of a right-hand page and on the left of a left-hand page. Other handbooks centre it. Centred numbers stay put even if a page accidentally starts on the left. Outer numbers are set with different odd and even headers, explained in the guide to headers in Word. Leave the inner margin alone. It belongs to the binding margin, not to the chapter opening.

In LaTeX the same behaviour depends on the document class. Overleaf records the defaults: the book class is two-sided and opens chapters on an odd, right-hand page. The report class is one-sided and starts a chapter on the next page, even or odd. An inserted blank page can still carry a header. Overleaf points to the emptypage package and to a manually empty page with an empty page style. If your department supplies a template, do not switch on openright and twoside on a guess. Open the finished PDF and see whether the blank page is blank. The route to that file is in the guide to writing with LaTeX and Overleaf.

When the blank page sits on an even PDF position and the chapter on an odd one, the bound copy keeps that order. Do not rely on binding to insert a missing verso. Which binding your department allows is in the handbook. The thesis printing page shows the bindings that are available.

What stays in the bound copy

In the bound copy the pages follow the PDF. If the blank page is missing from the file, the chapter starts on the left. A blank page that was visible only in Word does not arrive in the copy.

Last look in the two-page view

Each required main chapter starts on a right-hand PDF position.
The page before it is blank, or it carries only what the handbook allows.
The page number sits on the outer edge or in the centre, as the handbook requires.
The table of contents names the page you see in the PDF.

Checklist

The handbook says whether main chapters start on a right-hand page, on any new page, or with no rule.
Subsections do not have their own odd-page break unless the handbook asks for one.
The break is a section break in desktop Word, not a stack of empty paragraphs.
The exported PDF contains the blank page as its own page directly before the chapter.
The chapter heading sits on file position 1, 3 or 5, not merely on a page whose printed number is odd.
The table of contents and cross-references were updated after the last break.

Common mistakes

Inserting the break when printing is single-sided, or when the handbook only asks for a new page.
Forcing every subsection onto its own right-hand page.
Copying margins or type sizes from the LMU or HSU sheet into your own thesis.
Seeing the blank page in Word and never opening the exported PDF.
Deleting a section break and losing the header or numbering of the next section.
Treating a visible page number 1 as proof that the sheet side is the right-hand page.

Print the PDF once the chapter openings are checked

When the handbook, the blank pages and the exported PDF agree, you can prepare the file for printing. Choose the binding your university allows.

View thesis printing options

Explore related guidance on thesis structure, sources, formatting and final submission.

Frequently asked questions

Does every chapter have to start on a right-hand page?

Only when your handbook says so for double-sided printing. Some guides ask for a right-hand or odd page, some ask for any new page, and some do not mention it. Subsections usually stay in the running text. If your handbook is silent, ask your supervisor before you add blank pages through the whole thesis.

Why is there a blank page before my chapter?

An odd-page break inserts a blank verso when the previous chapter ends on an odd page. That is the point of the break, not a mistake. Delete it only if you print single-sided or the handbook does not ask for a right-hand page. A header on that blank page comes from the section header. In LaTeX a page like this can carry a header even when the body is empty.

Does the blank page count in the table of contents?

It is a PDF page. If it carries a page number, every later number moves by one. Update the table of contents after the last break and compare two entries with the number printed on the page. Whether blank pages count toward the required length is up to the handbook. The PDF page count and the length limit are two different numbers.

Chapter on a right-hand page: set the break before double-sided printing