How do I make the sections un-numbered?

Question

Every time I call \section{**Section Name**}, a number appears to the left of the name of the section.

How do I hide this number?

Answer 1

You may use

\section*{My section}

to get un-numbered sections. For details refer to The Not So Short Guide to LaTeX. (Page 41 describes \section*) (Thanks to @cmhughes for the link)

As per Heiko's suggestion, you can also use

\setcounter{secnumdepth}{0}

A MWE:

\documentclass[]{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\begin{document}
\section*{My section}
\lipsum[1]
\setcounter{secnumdepth}{0}
\section{Another section}
\lipsum[2]
\end{document}

In the KOMA-Script classes there’s an additional possibility with (among others) \addsec. Quote scrguien.pdf (English documentation):

In addition to the commands of the standard classes, KOMA-Script offers the new commands \addsec and \addchap. They are similar to the standard commands \chapter and \section, except that they are unnumbered. They thus produce both a running heading and an entry in the table of contents.