Formatting a Cover Page

Summary: Cover pages, which often need to be formatted different than the main body of a document, can easily be created in Word. The trick is to add a section break between the cover page and the body. You can then format each section independently of the other. This tip explains this concept and how to add the necessary section break. (This tip works with Microsoft Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, and Word 2003.)

If you are writing a report, you will probably want to create a cover page. In some word processors, this would be done as a separate file. You can also use this approach in Word, but you can also format a cover page as part of the document containing the report. This is done by making the cover page one section and the rest of the report another section. To do this, follow these steps:

At the beginning of your document, enter the information you want for your cover page. Don't worry about formatting yet; just enter the text.
Position the insertion point at the beginning of the report, but after the cover page information.
Select Break from the Insert menu. Word displays the Break dialog box. (Click here to see a related figure.)
Click on Next Page.
Click on OK.
Format the text in your cover page as you desire. You can even change headers, footers, and page margins. (If you change the page layout, make sure you only apply the changes to the section you used for your cover page.)

Tip #959 applies to Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

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