Inserting the Document Title in Your Document

Word keeps track of many pieces of information about your document. You can see the information maintained by Word simply by choosing Properties from the File menu. If you are using Word 2007, you can see the same information by clicking the Office button and then clicking Word Options. In the resulting Word Options dialog box, you click Prepare and then Properties.

If you search around through the information that Word maintains about a document, you'll find that Word provides the opportunity to specify a title for your document. Once you set the title, Word allows you to insert this information into your document and have it updated automatically. This means you can set the title once in the document properties, and then have it inserted in the header, footer, or heading for your document. That way, you only have to update it in one place and it will automatically be updated everywhere in the document.

To insert the document title into your document, follow these steps if you are using a version of Word prior to Word 2007:

1. Position the insertion point where you want the title to appear.
2. Choose Field from the Insert menu. Word displays the Field dialog box. (Click here to see a related figure.)
3. In the Categories list, choose Document Information. Word updates the choices in the Field Names list (right side of the dialog box).
4. In the Field Names list choose Title.
5. Click on OK to close the dialog box and insert your field.

If you are using Word 2007, then you should follow these steps instead:

1. Display the Insert tab of the ribbon.
2. In the Text group, click the Quick Parts option and then choose Field. Word displays the Field dialog box.
3. In the Categories list, choose Document Information. Word updates the choices in the Field Names list (right side of the dialog box).
4. In the Field Names list choose Title.
5. Click on OK to close the dialog box and insert your field.