Sections, Section Breaks, and Headers and Footers in Microsoft Word

What You Will Learn

(this guide table of contents) ------- (MS Word New Users FAQ)

This chapter last edited by Charles Kenyon on Thursday 13 October 2005 .

Using sections in Word

You can see the section breaks in your document in many views, but normal view is the easiest to recognize. Once you insert the section break a double dotted line appears from one side of your document to the other.

Practice: Inserting a section break

1. Open a blank document.
2. Change your document view to Normal.
3. Type the following: Title Page.
4. Now choose Insert > Break.
5. Choose Next Page Section Break.
6. Type Table of Contents.
7. Choose Insert > Break.
8. Choose Next Page Section Break.
9. Type Main document.

View your document in Print Preview. You now have three sections. Switch between Normal and Page Layout (Word 97) and Print Layout (Word 2000) views in this document to see how the section break appearance differs.

Change Page Formatting in a Specific Section

To better understand how sections work, think of your document as a book with different chapters, and each chapter starts with page number one.

In the last exercise we created a document with three separate sections. We are now able to apply unique formatting to each section of the document. The exercise that follows will help you change the margins and the page layout in the document using section breaks.

Practice: Change Page Formats in Sections

1. Use the document you created in the last exercise.
2. Press CTRL+END to move to the end of your document. You should be in Section 3.
3. Choose File > Page Setup >click Paper Size.
4. In the Orientation area, select Landscape.
5. Be sure that Apply to: says This Section.

Headers and Footers

A header or footer is text or other information such as graphics that is stored at the top or bottom of the page throughout your document. You can use the same header and footer throughout a document or change the header and footer for part of the document. For example, you can use your corporate logo in the first-page header, and then include the document's file name in the header for subsequent pages.

To view Headers and Footers in Normal View, click View > Header and Footer. If you are in Page Layout View (Word 97) or Print Layout View (Word 2000), simply double click the visible header or footer that appears as gray text.

In either case, the Header/Footer toolbar appears.

1. Choose View > Header and Footer.
2. Click the Switch Between Header and Footer button . Your cursor should be in the footer.
3. Click the button again to toggle back to the Header.
4. Press the Align Right button on the Formatting toolbar to move to the right side of the Header.
5. Type DRAFT Rough Outline.
6. Click the Switch Between Header and Footer button to move to the footer.
7. Place a Center Tab at 3.25 and a Right Tab at 6.5 on the ruler.
8. Press TAB once to move to the center of the Footer.
9. Click the Insert Page Number button.

Different First Page

There are times when you do not want the page number on the first page of your document. In WordPerfect, this was called Suppress. In Word, the feature is called Different First Page. This means you are still able to put information into the Header or Footer but it will not affect the rest of the Headers and Footers in the document.

1. Open the document from the last exercise.
2. Double-click the Header in your document. This will access the header and footer area and turn on the Header and Footer toolbar.
3. Click the Page Setup button on the Header and Footer toolbar. The Page Setup dialog box opens to the Layout tab.

   

4. Select Different first page.
5. Click OK.
6. Save and close this document.

Notice the Header area now says First Page Header.

Different Odd and Even

The Different Odd and Even option allows you to format your headers and footers differently. For example, you may want the page numbers on the odd pages to be aligned to the right and the page numbers on the even pages to be aligned to the left when you are printing double sided documents. You can access this option from the Page Setup button on the Header and Footer toolbar.

Format Page Numbers

You will need to understand how to insert and format page numbers. For example, you may add a Table of Contents to your document and would like the page numbering to be in lowercase Roman numeral format. As long as your document is divided into sections, you can have differently formatted page numbers in each section of your document.

Same As Previous

Word's default is to connect all the Headers in the document and all the footers in the document so they are all the same. It does this by using the Same as the Previous command. It is important to turn OFF the Same as Previous option FIRST before you make any other changes. This will prevent the previous section from being changed as well.

Create a new blank document.

Save As (your initials) Sections.

1. Type

   Confidential Employment Agreement
   ZZZ Company
   January 1, 2000

2. Choose Insert > Break. From the Section Breaks area, select Next Page to insert a Next Page section break.
3. Type Table of Contents and press ENTER.
4. Insert a Next Page section break.
5. From the Style drop-down list on the Formatting toolbar, choose Body Text.
6. Type =rand(30) and press ENTER.
7. Insert a Next Page section break.
8. Type Appendix: Salary Increases and press ENTER.
9. Choose File > Page Setup > Paper Size.
10. Under Orientation, select Landscape.
11. Be sure that Apply to: says This section.
12. Save the document.
13. Press CTRL+HOME to get the top of the document.
14. Choose View > Header and Footer.
15. Click the Switch Between Header and Footer button. Your cursor should be in the footer of the first page. Notice that it says: Footer Section 1. We do not want a page number on the first page so leave it blank.
16. Click the Show Next button to jump to the next footer. It should read: Footer Section Notice on the right that it says Same As Previous.
17. Click the Same As Previous button. This disconnects Section 2 footer from Section 1 footer.
18. Choose the Center button on the Formatting toolbar to move your cursor to the middle of the footer.
19. Click the Format Page Number button. The Page Number Format dialog box opens.

    

20. From the Number format drop-down list, choose lowercase Roman Numerals.
21. Under Page Numbering, select Start at to have the page numbers start counting from this section.
22. Click OK to return to the footer.
23. Click the Insert Page Number button on the Header/Footer toolbar.
24. Click Show Next to move the cursor to Footer-Section 3.
25. Turn off Same As Previous using the button on the Header/Footer toolbar.
26. Click Page Number Format.
27. Change the number format to Arabic numerals, and choose Start At and change the Start At to 1. Click OK.
28. Click Show Next to move the cursor to Footer-Section 4.
29. Turn off Same As Previous.
30. Change the number format to capital letters.
31. Click Close on the Header/Footer toolbar.
32. Switch to Print Preview and make sure your page numbers are correct.

Trouble Shooting Sections, Headers and Footers, Page Numbering

Why is the spacing off in the footer of a landscape page?

1. Check first to see if there are section breaks setting off the landscape page.
2. Even though the footer will look the "same as previous," that option must be turned off.
3. After turning it off, move the center tab to 5.5 inches and the right tab to 10 inches.
4. Continue to the following section and, again, turn off "same as previous."

The page number was formatted to show A, B, C. It's not appearing in the footer.

Although the number was formatted correctly, it was not inserted. First format the number to get what is needed; then insert the number in the footer.

I can't see the headers and footers.

If you are in Normal View, it is necessary to click View > Header and Footer. If you switch to Page Layout View (Word 97) or Print Layout View (Word 2000) you will see them as unavailable. Double-click in the header or footer and the Header/Footer toolbar will be accessible.

The section break doesn't allow me to have both portrait and landscape text on the same page.

Unfortunately, Word will not allow this by the use of a section break. To achieve the desired effect, you must insert a text box.

CK Note: Everything that follows has been added by me and does not appear in the original of this chapter.

I have the codes for Page 1 of 3 (x of y) in my header/footer. It is different on the screen from when it prints out. Or, I get Page 1 of 1, Page 2 of 2, Page 3 of 3, etc.

Unfortunately this feature doesn't work very well. There are a number of reasons for this, including background printing and the timing of field updates. The best work-around that I have heard of is to use a Cross-Reference for the "Y" of Page X of Y. Put a bookmark on the last page of your document - at the very end - and use Insert | Cross-Reference to insert the page number on which that bookmark may be found. Other things to do include:

1. Turn off background printing.
2. Turn off display of hidden text if you have any in your document.
3. View the document in Print Preview (Page Preview) mode including the last page of the document to force an update of the fields. 

For more on this see: http://www.addbalance.com/word/pagexofy.htm. For more on bookmarks and cross-references see Complex Legal Documents.

See also Troubleshooting Sections