Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, and 2013. 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: Creating Page Footers and Headers.

Creating Page Footers and Headers

by Allen Wyatt
(last updated March 19, 2019)

4

Word allows you to add headers and footers to your document. Headers are nothing more than repeating text that appears at the top of every page of your printed document, whereas footers appear at the bottom of each page. The beauty of headers and footers is that they only have to be defined once, and then Word places them on your printed pages automatically.

The easiest way to create a header or footer in Word is to simply double-click at the top or bottom of a page, where the header or footer will appear. You can also, if you prefer, follow these steps:

  1. Display the Insert tab of the ribbon.
  2. Click the Header tool in the Header & Footer group, and then click Edit Header. The header is displayed and the insertion point is within it.
  3. If desired, enter the information for the header, formatting it as you would format normal text in your document.
  4. Click on the Go To Footer tool on the Design tab of the ribbon.
  5. If desired, enter the information for the footer, formatting it as you would format normal text in your document.
  6. Click on Close Header and Footer (on the Design tab of the ribbon) when your header and footer are defined the way you want them.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (9506) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, and 2013. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Creating Page Footers and Headers.

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. ...

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What is four less than 8?

2014-04-22 09:26:41

Ian Sinclair

Surendera Bhanot,

Thanks very much - that works well! I had been thinking of a macro to modify new documents, but I had missed the idea of a template. Now the footer fields will be updated correctly with the values associated with that document.

2014-04-22 06:06:52

Surendera M. Bhanot

Thanks Ian Sinclair.

If you want to make this feature permanent, save the document as a Template. Or modify the Normal.dot after formatting your document. You can do that by clicking the little square at the right bottom of <Change Styles> on the Styles Group on the Home Tab in Word2010. A Style Menu appears. Hover your mouse pointer over Normal (Name of the current style) a Down-arrow appears. Click that arrow and click <modify>. Modify Style Dialogue Box appears. Do necessary additional Changes and click OK. Next time you open the document your formatting will be there in all the new documents.

2014-04-21 10:50:49

Ian Sinclair

I often add a footer that contains the document name in the bottom left, the page number in the middle and the date at bottom right.

To enter this footer, I repeat the sequence

1. Insert footer -> bland three columns

2. Select left, insert Quick Parts -> Field -> Document Information -> FileName

3. Select middle, insert Quick Parts -> Field -> Numbering -> Page

4. Select right, insert Quick Parts -> Date and Time -> SaveDate -> 2014-04-21 (ISO format date)

Is there a way to automate all this?

2014-04-20 10:47:07

Surendera M. Bhanot

How can we place The Book Title on Even and the current Chapter Number on odd pages, with the first and last word on that page on the header Page number in the footer with first page different?

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