What is the difference between headings and headers?
Why does it matter?
This page last revised:
06 Jan 2024 23:47:34 -0500
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People often confuse these similar terms but, in Word, they have very
different meanings and the features have very different uses. If you are looking
for help about Word, it is important that you do use the correct term in a
search.
Headings are special paragraph Styles
Headings are paragraph styles with special qualities. This is especially true
if you use the built-in heading styles. See
Why use Microsoft Word’s built-in heading styles? by Shauna Kelly
They are used to break up text into meaningful parts. In Word versions
beginning with Word 2013, they will be
collapsible. (Outlining in Microsoft Word)
Headings are often automatically numbered.
How
to create numbered headings or outline numbering in Ribbon Versions of Word by
Shauna Kelly
Headers are not numbered other than that they can contain
page
numbers.
Understanding
Styles in Microsoft Word
Headers are a repeating element at the top of pages
They are often called running heads. They complement footers which go at the
bottom of pages. In Word, they are a layer separate from the body of the
document and are set in Sections. There are styles Header and Footer built into Word, but they are not the
built-in heading styles, and are not used for organizing document content. (Outlining in Microsoft Word)
Sections /
Headers and Footers in Microsoft Word 2007-2016
Sections /
Headers and Footers in Microsoft Word 97-2003
People often want headers and footers to reflect the content of the pages or
chapters. This is best done using a
StyleRef
Field rather than by having multiple headers/footers.
Headers and footers are the usual place for page numbers (even those
that are in the left or right margin).
Page
Numbers in Word 2007-2016
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Changes / suggestions / ideas can be sent to
Charles
Kenyon.
views since 13 April 2004
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