Word headers and footers, added to the top or the bottom of your page layout, can be a great finishing touch. This is especially true if the document is intended to print or to conver to a PDF file. Word provides many tools you can use to create and manage headers and footers. The tips in this category will help you figure out exactly how to achieve just the look and functionality you want.

Tips, Tricks, and Answers

The following articles are available for the 'Headers and Footers' topic. Click the article''s title (shown in bold) to see the associated article.

   Automatically Changing Tab Stops in the Footer
If you use a tab stop in your footer to align information at the right margin, you may not get what you expect when you later adjust the right margin. Here's why that happens and what you can do about it.

   AutoText Unavailable in Headers and Footers
When you are creating headers and footers for your document, you might want to use some of your AutoText entries. What if those entries aren't available to you, however?

   Changing Headers and Footers
Editing what is in your page header or footer is fairly easy, and you can use the same editing techniques you already know. The key is to make sure the header or footer is accessible, as discussed in this tip.

   Copying Headers and Footers
Need to get headers and footers from one document to another? You can use the steps in this tip to help make quick work of the task.

   Creating Page Footers and Headers
Headers and footers can add a final, professional touch to your printed document. Here's the quick way to add the headers and footers you need.

   Deleting a Header or Footer
When working with existing documents, you may need to delete a header or footer previously created. Here's how you can do it in the easiest manner.

   Deleting All Headers and Footers
Headers and footers add a finishing touch to documents, but sometimes they can be bothersome. You may need to remove them all from a document, and the easiest way is with a macro that does the work for you.

   Different AutoText Entries in Header and Footer
With lots of AutoText entries defined in your system, you may wonder why you can't see all of the ones you need when creating a header or footer. The reason is rooted in how Word handles "styled" AutoText entries, as described in this tip.

   Editing Headers and Footers
Headers and footers are a nice final touch in a document. You can easily edit them by using the methods described in this tip.

   Entering a Name in the Header of a Locked Form
When you lock a document as a form, then Word limits what you can do with that document. That includes not being able to change whatever is in the header and footer. This tip explains how you can bypass the need for putting a form field in an area of the document you can't change once the form is protected.

   Field in Footer Won't Update
Word provides a handy shortcut that allows you to update the fields in any text you've selected. When you select your whole document, you'd expect Word to update all the fields in your document, right? Wrong, and here's why.

   Floating Footer
Need some specific text to appear just below the end of the text on the last page of your document? You can accomplish what you need by ignoring Word's footers and using a text box, instead.

   Form Fields in Headers and Footers
When working with form fields, you may want to place those fields in the header or footer of a document. Word won't let you do that, but it doesn't mean you still can't access the information placed in those fields. Here's how to get to the info you need.

   Headers and Footers in Subdocuments
If you use master and subdocuments, you may wonder how to control headers and footers in the subdocuments. This tip shares the way to do this.

   Including a Printer's Name in a Footer
If you can produce output on a number of different printers, you may want Word to indicate on your printouts which printer was actually used. Here's a way you can include the printer name in the footer of your documents, as you print them.

   Including Headers and Footers when Selecting All
If you are creating a macro that, in the course of processing your document, needs to update all the fields in the document, you may be surprised to find out the process is more complex than anticipated. This tip explains why this is the case, and provides some code you can use to do the updating you need.

   Insert AutoText Tool Unavailable on Header and Footer Toolbar
When creating headers or footers, you might notice at some time that the "Insert AutoText" tool on the Header and Footer toolbar is not available. This can be bothersome if you really want to add an AutoText entry to your header or footer. Here's why this happens.

   Inserting a Cross-Reference to the First Style on a Page
A common way to set up a header is to have it refer to the first occurrence of a heading on the page. (Think how the headers in dictionaries refer to the first word defined on the page.) Word makes this easy to do using the STYLEREF field.

   Inserting a Cross-Reference to the Last Style on a Page
It is often helpful to reference a specific heading in the header or footer of a page, and have that reference change on each page. This is easy to do using the STYLEREF function, as described in this tip.

   Inserting the Date in a Header or Footer
Need today's date in the header or footer of your document? Here's how to get it there easily.

   Making Wider Footer Margins
Want the margins used in your footers (or headers) to be wider than the margins used in the rest of your document? There are a couple of tricks you can use to get the desired width.

   Missing Header and Footer Toolbar
When you need to make changes to the header or footer of a document, the Header and Footer toolbar is invaluable. What if you can't get it to display, however?

   Odd & Even Headers and Footers
Adding a running header or footer to a document can be a nice touch. If you want, you can even tell Word to use a different header and footer on odd pages than what it uses on even pages. Here's how.

   Paragraph Numbers in Headers or Footers
If your documents routinely use numbered paragraphs, you may want to place the number of the page's first paragraph in the header or footer of the page. This can be a bit tricky, but with these steps you can't go wrong.

   Positioning Headers and Footers
Headers and footers can add a finishing touch to your printed documents. Here's how you can position those headers and footers relative to the edges of the paper.

   Preventing the Left Margin of a Footer from Moving
When you print a document, does the position of the page footer seem to move left and right? This could have to do with how you are applying indents within the document, as discussed in this tip.

   Protecting Headers and Footers
If you don't want the information in a header of footer to be changed by users of your document, there are a couple of things you can try. This tip discusses one approach, using the protection features of Word itself.

   Pulling Headers and Footers from Other Files
You may have some standard headers and footers you want to make available in your document templates. This tip describes some ways you can approach managing these headers and footers.

   Putting Document Names in Headers or Footers
Want to include the file name of a document on the printed copy without rearranging the layout? You can use a header or footer and this tip explains how easy it is to do.

   Quickly Formatting Footers in Documents with Many Sections
Need to adjust all the footers or headers in a document that uses lots of them? It's easy to do if you understand how the footers and headers are related to each other.

   Repeating the First Column of a Table
Need the first column of a table to be repeated on multiple pages? You can't do it automatically in Word, but you can use a workaround to get the desired result.

   Suppressing Headers or Footers
Don't want a header or footer to appear on just a portion of your document? It's easy to do when you understand that headers and footers can be controlled on a section-by-section basis.

   Using Continued Lines
You can create a special header and footer page numbering scheme by using nested fields. This tip shows an example of how you can use the fields to calculate the next page number and to identify the last page of the document.

   Using Last-page Headers and Footers
Headers and footers add a nice touch to your documents, particularly if they are printed. You may want Word to use a special header or footer on the last page of your document, but there is no built-in way to accomplish the task. Here's how you can do it easily.