Inserting the Date in a Header or Footer

When creating headers or footers for your document, it is very common to insert the date into them. In this way the date is printed on every page of your document. To insert the date, you can follow these steps:

1. Choose Header and Footer from the View menu. Word displays the Header and Footer dialog box.
2. Position the insertion point within the header or footer at the place you want the date to appear.
3. Click on the Insert Date tool on the Header and Footer dialog box. Word inserts today's date.
4. Click on Close.

The date inserted in step 3 is the current date, meaning that the date used is dynamic. Today it shows today's date, and tomorrow it will show tomorrow's date. When you use the Insert Date tool, Word actually inserts a DATE field into the header or footer. You can see the makeup of the DATE field by simply selecting it in the header or footer and pressing Shift+F9. The field is expanded, and you can make changes to the field, as desired.

The Insert Date tool isn't the only way to insert a date in the header or footer, of course. Once you position the insertion point where you want it (step 2 in the above steps), you can choose Date and Time from the Insert menu and select the format you want used for the date.