Word features a few built-in ways to change up your headers and footers in a document. For example, you can pretty easily have different headers and footers for odd and even pages, or you can have a different header and footer on the first page. To go beyond that, you’ll need to create multiple sections in your document, and learn how to link and unlink headers and footers from the preceding section.
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For demonstration purposes, we’ve created a simple document that uses a plain text header with the words “How-To Geek” and a plain text footer with a page number (like in the image at the top of the article). Note: We’re using Word 2016 for our examples in this article, but the techniques we’re talking about apply to pretty much any version of Word. Create a Different Header and Footer on the First Page One typical document convention is having a different header and footer on the first page of a document than shows up in the rest of the document. Perhaps you have a title page where you want no header or footer at all. Or, perhaps you want the first page footer to show some official disclaimer text for your company, and the footer in the rest of the document to show page numbers. Whatever your reason, Word makes this easy.
How to change font defaults in Microsoft Word 2016 for Windows. How to change your Word 2016 default font size. Open any document or create a new document. It doesn't matter which.
First, double-click anywhere in either the header or footer region of a page to make those regions active. The header/footer region becomes active and you’ll see a new “Design” tab show up on your Ribbon with controls for dealing with headers and footers. On that tab, select the “Different First Page” option. When you select that option, any text already in the header and footer on the first page is deleted. Also note that the name of the areas on the first page change to “First Page Header” and “First Page Footer.” You can leave them blank, or you can fill the spaces with other text that will not impact the headers and footers on subsequent pages at all. Create Different Headers and Footers on Odd and Even Pages Word also has a built-in option for creating different headers and footers for odd and even pages.
By far, the most common use of this feature is to have page numbers appear at the outer edges of facing pages—the way you see it done in most books. To do this, double-click anywhere in either the header or footer region of a page to make those regions active. The header/footer region becomes active and you’ll see a new “Design” tab show up on your Ribbon with controls for dealing with headers and footers. On that tab, select the “Different Odd & Even Pages” option. When you select that option, anything you have in the footers of even numbered pages is deleted.
You can then put anything you want there, and align it however you like. Create Different Headers and Footers for Different Sections of Your Document Unfortunately, that’s where the easy control of headers and footers in Word ends. If you want to change headers and footers within the document any more than we’ve already covered, you’ll have to break your document into sections. There are all kinds of reasons you might want to do this. For example:. You have some graphics or spreadsheets in your document that you want on landscape-oriented pages, when the rest of the document is portrait-oriented. You still want the headers and footers at the vertical top and bottom of the pages, though.
You’re creating a long document with multiple chapters and don’t want headers and footers (or want them to look different) on the title pages of each chapter. You want to number some pages differently. For example, maybe you want your introduction and table of contents pages numbered with Roman numerals, but the main text of your document numbered with Arabic numerals. Whatever your reasons, the trick is to create different sections where you want the headers and footers to look different. Personally, I find it easiest to think about the document ahead of time and create all the sections I need before I start populating the document.
This often prevents the weird layout glitches you can get (and then have to resolve) when sectioning an already full document. That said, you can still create sections in an existing document, and the process is the same. Place your cursor wherever you want to create a section break (typically this will be at the end of a page), and then switch to the “Layout” tab on the Ribbon. Click the “Breaks” button, and then choose the type of break you want.
Usually, this is going to be a page break, so that’s what we’re using here. Now, double-click the header or footer area on the page after the break you inserted. On the “Design” tab of the Ribbon, click the “Link to Previous” button to turn that option off. This breaks the link between the header or footer (whatever you have selected) of this section and the previous section. If you want to break the link for both the header and footer, you’ll need to do each one in turn this way. Unlinking does not delete any existing text or images in the header or footer. You can remove, modify, or replace what’s already in your header or footer, and your changes will not impact the headers and footers in the previous section.
If you decide to reestablish a link to a previous sections header or footer, though, that action is destructive. When you relink sections, the header and footer in the active section is removed and replaced with whatever’s in the previous section. To do it, just double-click the header or footer on the page after the break. On the “Design” tab of the Ribbon, click the “Link to Previous” button to turn that option back on.
Word warns you that you’ll be deleting the current header or footer, and replacing it with the header or footer from the previous section. Click “Yes” to make it happen. And just like that, your header or footer is reconnected to the previous section. Just remember that you’ll have to link or unlink both the header and footer as separate actions.
It’s easy to be inefficient. And for things that you only do once in a while, inefficiency is fine. Optimizing performance for a monthly task is generally a overall time loss. But for things you do frequently, finding the most efficient and effective method is worthwhile. This goes double for work that you need to share with other people, or workflows that need to be compatible across a company. And if you get to use software the way it was designed to be used, instead of fighting the software to impose your own personal workflow, you’ll have an even easier time.
Styling text in Microsoft Word is one of those things that it pays to do correctly. And yet, so many people are passionately dedicated to doing it incorrectly.
Direct styling everything might feel simpler, but it’s slower, more complicated and causes an amazing percentage of “problems” that users have with Word. It won’t make your images stay in one place (can anything? The search continues) but your text will stay the way you put it, provided you use Styles as they are intended. Applying existing styles Built-in styles can be applied by clicking on their icon in the Styles menu in the ribbon. We’ll be doing a lot of our work in the “Styles” pane which is found in the “Home” ribbon.
Use the headings as a starting point both for organizing your document and creating your own custom styles. Select the text you want to change. Selecting the text you want to modify will always be the first step for any text-styling task. Pro-tip: you can select a whole line of text by clicking off to the left of the line, in the document’s margins. The mouse cursor will face backwards to let you know you’re in the right place.
Click on the appropriate style icon in the “Styles” pane. The selected text is now styled as previewed in the icon. Modifying styles Most users don’t want to be limited to the built-in styles. While there are other styles available in the Design menu of the ribbon, users can make their own. Making a new style from scratch is a pain: you’re better off modifying an existing style. It also allows you to take advantage of the built-in structural elements embedding in many styles.
You’ll use the same method for updating your own styles as you tweak them. Apply the matching style you want to change. Make the appropriate changes to the text with the direct styling tools. Right-click on the style you applied in the Style ribbon and choose “Update Style to Match Selection.” This will change the style to match and automatically sync that change to every other instance of the Style in your document. It will also update the Style’s preview icon. Advanced Styling Options You can also apply some advanced styling options to your Styles, making them more useful and functional.
All of these changes can be propagated across styles by modifying existing styles, as shown in the previous step. Here are a few choice examples. Add space below a heading without Return Most of the time you want a little space between your headings and your body copy. Don’t use the Return key to make it!
Insert whitespace using the Paragraph menu. Select the heading you want to add space after. Open the Paragraph menu from the menu bar (Format Paragraph).
You can also press Command+Option+M with text selected. Adjust the point value in the “After” box, under the “Spacing” section. You can also use the nearby “Line spacing” drop down for less precise adjustments. Add a horizontal rule or line 1. Select the text you want to add a line underneath 2. Click the “Borders” icon in the Paragraph ribbon menu and choose “Bottom Border” from the drop down.
This will add a horizontal line all the way across the page, instead of just under the text, as an underline would. Expand letter spacing Give your text some breathing room, which is useful for headings. Select the appropriate text to change. Open the Font menu from the menu bar (Format Font) or press Command+D with text selected.
Click on the “Advanced” tab. Click the drop down next to “Spacing” and choose “Expanded.” 5.
Adjust the point value until satisfied. Create an all-caps style Headings often look nice set in all caps. You can apply this in the same Font Options menu you just visited. Open the Font menu from Format Font or press Command+D with text selected. Tick the “All Caps” box in the Font tab. Saving and Sharing Style Templates Once you’ve created a set of styles that you like, you can save it as part of a template.
Save the file as a template (.dotx), then create a new file with that template. These files can also be shared among users. Parting Advice Make sure you apply your styles appropriately: the style names aren’t meaningless! They also create the structure of your document. Headings with higher numbers are nested “inside” headings with lower numbers in outlining terms. Use “Heading 1” for the most important heading(s), “Heading 2” for secondary headings and so on. Careful use lets you generate a Table of Contents, zoom through long documents with the Navigation Pane and export your document to blog posts easily.
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