Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Inserting the Author Name.

Inserting the Author Name

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 4, 2025)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021

It is possible in Word to keep track of quite a bit of summary information for a document. One of the pieces you can track is the author of a document. This originally is set to be the same as the Word user name, but you can change the author name at any time. Word allows you to insert the author's name directly in your document, and have it updated automatically if you should ever change the author's name. This is done by following these steps:

Position the insertion point where you want the author name inserted.
Display the Insert tab of the ribbon.
Click the Quick Parts tool (in the Text group) and then choose Field. Word displays the Field dialog box.
From the Categories list select the Document Information category. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Field dialog box.

Select Author from the Field Names list.
Click on OK.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (9136) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Inserting the Author Name.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

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What is 5 + 2?

2022-07-27 04:22:57

Giang

I have a list of authors whose characters are longer than allowed. What should I do to insert all author names?

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