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    Headers and Footers

    ⭐ Beginner Level

    Here's a breakdown of everything this article covers:

    Nearly every multi-page document will have a header and/or a footer. Headers are found at the top of the page, footers at the bottom. They're used to state certain properties about a document page to help users navigate, identify and/or understand its context.

    Example header at the top of the page
    Example header at the top of the page (in grey)

    Example footer at the bottom of the page<
    Example footer at the bottom of the page (in grey)

    What do you put in a header and footer?

    There's many different things that can go in a header or footer. The obvious one is page numbers which are usually found in a footer of a book or document. But there's a lot of other content you might find in them:

    • The author or organisation who created the document
    • Page numbering (e.g. Page 1 of 8, these generally tend to be on the footer)
    • Date
    • Name of a chapter/section/module/unit
    • Contact information (e.g. email, phone, website and/or postal address)
    • Confidentiality/Classification tags (e.g. 'Confidential', 'Internal use only', 'Not for distribution' etc.)
    • Document status/workflow/process tags (e.g. 'Draft', 'For review', 'Pending Approval', 'Final' etc.)
    • Version number
    • Document ID
    • Sources/references

    There's two ways to edit headers and footers. Either go to Insert > Header & Footer, or the much faster method is to double click on the top or bottom margin area.

    Header and Footer in ribbon in Word Header and Footer in ribbon in Word on a smaller screen
    Demonstration of double clicking margin to activate footer in Word

    Once selected the header or footer appears with a dotted line and tag. You can now type and insert content into the header/footer.

    Header in Word

    Footer in Word

    When you've finished editing the header/footer, double click on the main section of the page, or alternatively from the ribbon select Header & Footer > Close header and footer

    Close Header and Footer option on ribbon in Word

    Deselecting a footer in Word

    Inserting page numbers

    Word makes it easy to add page numbering to your document. Go to Insert > Page Number and choose templated page numbering from the menus.

    Inserting a page number in Word

    This will insert an automated field that shows each page's unique page number.

    What if I want to show total pages 'Page X of X'?

    That will involve adding another field using quick parts. See here: Inserting automated quick part fields

    You don't need to have a header or footer selected to delete it. Go to Insert on the ribbon and select either Header or Footer, then select the Remove Header / Remove Footer option at the bottom of the menu.

    Insert header footer menus remove on ribbon in Word

    Alternatively, if you have the header/footer selected, you can select the same delete options from the Header & Footer > Header/Footer.

    While editing you may have noticed two of the tab stops symbols on the horizontal ruler there. There's actually three, one's hidden on the left by the indent markers.

    Header tab stops on ruler in Word

    They have different symbols there for left, centre and right aligned tab stops. You can press the Tab key to move the insertion point between tab stops from left to centre to right. It's an easy way to have content aligned differently on the same line.

    Header tab stops example in Word

    Different headers and footers for first pages

    If your document has a cover page of some sort then you'll likely want to have it look different from other pages and not have the same headers and footers as the rest of the document. Sometimes you may just want the first page's header and footer blank. To differentiate the first page from the others, select any header/footer and then from Header & Footer on the ribbon check the Different first page checkbox.

    Different first page on ribbon in Word

    On the first page you'll see the tag change to First Page Header and First Page Footer appear. You can now edit that first page separately as you need to.

    Different first page example in Word

    You may want differing headers and footers for left and right opposite facing pages (in the editorial world we call this 'verso' and 'recto'), such as for a book or a two-sided report. Microsoft Word caters for this via the Header & Footer > Different Odd & Even Pages checkbox which lets you edit odd and even pages separately.

    Different odd and even pages on ribbon in Word

    Once checked the headers and footers on even pages go blank, from here edit as you need them.

    Note: Typically odd numbered pages are right pages and even numbered pages are left pages . In the example below notice how the page numbers are swapped over, this is so that the page number is always near the edge of the page not the spine where the pages meet.

    Different odd and even pages example in Word

    Quick part fields are useful to insert data which updates within the document. A common example of this is a page number; Word makes it easy to add a page number via Insert > Page Number and once inserted if you select the page number itself it will highlight dark grey. This is because it's a field, one which changes dynamically with each page increasing the number by one.

    Page number field selected in Word

    But what if you also want to show the number of pages e.g. '1 of 7'? In that case you'll need to add another quick part field to do it. Let's take a look at how this is done.

    In our example above we've already added a page number to the footer. I'm going to add a space after the page number, the word 'of' and a space after it. Then I go to Header & Footer > Quick Parts > Field:

    Quick parts field on ribbon in Word

    This brings up a Field window with the left menu hosting all different sorts of fields available.

    In my case I need NumPages. I have the option to choose different formats and can then press OK

    .

    Field window in Word

    Here's it all from start to finish:

    Inserting a quick part field in Word