Headers are located in the margin area at the top
of the page. Footers are located in the margin
area at the bottom of a page. Headers and
footers generally contain document information,
such as the file name, author, date created, page
numbering and the like. This information is
repeated on each page and thus enables the
reader to easily navigate the document.
Each and every document contains header and footer areas, but the areas are only visible when they
contain information. To enter information into a header or footer, you need to activate it. You can
double-click on either the header or footer area to edit the header or footer. Headers and footers are
only visible in Print Layout view and Print Preview.
To indicate when the headers and footers are not active, the information contained within them
appears greyed out or faded. To indicate when the headers and footers are active, a blue dashed line
appears on the edge of the margin and a small Header or Footer tab appears on the left side.
In multi-page documents, headers and footers will appear on every page. This is particularly useful
for information such as page numbering. If section breaks have been used in the document, then you
are able to change the headers and footers for each section. This may prove useful in a document with
chapters, enabling you to insert the name of each chapter in the relevant header or footer, for instance.
You are also able to insert special fields into the headers and footers, which display document
information, page numbers, the date or time and the like. The document information is drawn from the
data stored in the document’s Properties and may include data such as Author, Title or Subject. The
fields are automatically updated when the data they display changes. In the case of the date and time
fields, they can be set to not change.
By default, the header and footer areas contain three predefined text positions: text is automatically
positioned on the left margin; a centre aligned tab exists in the centre of the header/footer areas and; a
right aligned tab exists near the right margin. This enables you to accurately position text within the
header or footer.