Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 20, 2020)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016
In Judi's law office, all documents must have a footer identifying the file name and location. She has modified the Normal template to include this field, and it is set at the left margin of the page. However, when the user modifies the document part way through and changes the left-hand margin (for an indented portion of the document, for example), the footer moves with the margin. Judi wonders how she can prevent this from happening.
There are a couple of ways you can approach this problem. First, your users need to understand the difference between margins and indents. From the description, it sounds like the user is inserting section breaks around the portion they want indented and then adjusting the page margin to implement the indent. In this instance, the left margin of the footer moves to match what Word perceives as the new page margin.
The correct way to do this—so that the left margin of the footer is not affected—is to simply indent the paragraphs. In the main body of the text, select the paragraphs to be indented and then adjust the left indent setting for them. (An even easier way to do this is to define styles for your commonly indented paragraphs and then just apply the styles as necessary.) The position of the footer won't move at all, even though the paragraphs are now indented.
Another approach is to change how you are creating your footer. All you need to do is to insert a text box or a frame within the footer area and place your field code within it. You can adjust the width of the text box or frame to meet your needs and you should format it as desired. (For instance, you'll probably want to make sure there is no border on the text box or frame.) You can position the text box or frame, using techniques described in other issues of WordTips, so that the positioning is calculated from the left edge of the page rather than from the page margin. In this way, no matter how your page margin may change, the text box or frame remains unmovable.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (12094) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Preventing the Left Margin of a Footer from Moving.
Learning Made Easy! Quickly teach yourself how to format, publish, and share your content using Word 2013. With Step by Step, you set the pace, building and practicing the skills you need, just when you need them! Check out Microsoft Word 2013 Step by Step today!
Headers and footers can add a finishing touch to your printed documents. Here's how you can position those headers and ...
Discover MoreGetting a word count for an entire document is rather easy. If you want a word count for a special part of a document ...
Discover MoreWhen you insert a new section in your document, Word assumes you want the headers and footers in that section to be the ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
2016-09-06 08:54:36
Jennifer Thomas
While the text box/frame solution would technically work, I don't recommend it unless there is no other option because text boxes can cause issues when cutting/pasting/converting to another document format. Frames in Word are also known to cause other hard-to-fix problems (like page number sequence errors), so unless you are skilled at working with HTML components in Word, stay away from using them.
The bottom line is to remember that page margin = header/footer margins, so use the indented formatting as described instead.
Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.
Visit the WordTips channel on YouTube
FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
Copyright © 2023 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Comments