How do I... Vary headers and footers in a Word document?

by Steven Pittsley CNE | Aug 23, 2006 7:00:00 AM

Tags: Word processors, Steven Pittsley CNE, Microsoft Word, header, footer

Takeaway: Word offers some basic tools on the Header And Footer toolbar, but more sophisticated setup requires a trip to the Layout tab. These tips will help your users fine-tune their document headers and footers.

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Well-crafted headers and footers add polish to your documents, and Word's basic header and footer tools make it a cinch to format text that appears on each page. However, what do you do if you want certain information to be printed differently on alternating pages, such as the page numbers of a book? Or how about skipping the header and footer on the title page of a document?

Although these types of configuration settings are not immediately obvious, once you know how to find them, you'll discover that they provide you with some slick formatting options and a great deal of control.

Finding the settings you need

Word is a fairly easy application to use, but some features are not located in the most intuitive place. This is the case for several settings used to work with headers and footers. The majority of header and footer options are located on the Header And Footer toolbar. (To open this toolbar, click View | Header And Footer.) As you can see in Figure A, the toolbar provides options for AutoText, page numbers, inserting the date and time, and several other handy features. However, some of the more advanced options require a trip to the Page Setup dialog box.

Figure A

The Layout tab in the Page Setup dialog contains additional options that allow you to control the way that headers and footers are printed on the page. To access these settings, shown in Figure B, click the Page Setup button on the Header And Footer toolbar (or choose File | Page Setup) and click the Layout tab.

Figure B

To create alternating headers and footers, select the Different Odd And Even option. When this option is selected, you can enter one set of headers and footers that will be displayed on the odd-numbered pages of the document and then enter a different set of headers and footers for the even-numbered pages. For example, in Figure C, we set up our headers so that the page numbers appear on the outside edges of the page.

Figure C

Another Layout tab option, Different First Page, allows you to use a different header and footer (or none at all) on the first page of a document. This option is especially helpful when working with documents that contain a title page, which typically doesn't include a page number. When the Different First Page option is selected, you can enter one set of headers and footers that will be displayed only on the first page of the document and then enter another set of headers and footers for all subsequent pages. If you're omitting headers and footers from the first page, simply leave those areas blank.

As long as we're looking at Word's less obvious header and footer settings, let's touch on the From Edge settings in the Layout tab. These settings allow you to control the position of a header or footer relative to the top or bottom edge of the page. For example, you might want to use these settings to adjust the location of the header and footer on a page that has a border. Just enter the desired distance from the edge of the page, measured in inches. You can apply the From Edge settings to specific sections or to all headers and footers in a document.

Although these three configuration options are primarily used only in special circumstances, knowing where they are located and how to use them can enable you to produce a professional-looking document instead of scratching your head, wasting time, and being forced to improvise.

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