Headers, footers and page numbers

Hello students, welcome to Kwickprep. A fifty page report shows the school name on top of every page. Did someone type it fifty times? No. Today we will learn headers, footers and page numbers in Word and Writer.

First, two new terms. A header is a special area in the top margin that repeats on every page. A footer is the same kind of area in the bottom margin. You type the content only once, and it appears on all pages automatically. Common items are the document title, the organisation name, the date and the page number.

Here is where to find these tools. In Word, click the Insert tab and then Header, and in Writer choose Insert, then Header and Footer. For a footer, Word uses Insert, then Footer, and Writer has it in the same Header and Footer menu. For page numbers, both use Insert, then Page Number, which is under Field in older versions of Writer.

Here are the steps to add a header in Word. The quickest way is to double-click in the top margin of any page. Type the header text, for example your school name. You can format it like normal text, with bold, size and alignment. Then click Close Header and Footer, or press Escape, and the text appears on every page.

Page numbers work in a clever way. A page number is a field, which means text that the software fills in by itself. The number changes automatically on each page. If you add or delete a page, the numbers stay correct. So never type page numbers by hand, because they will be wrong after the first change.

Page numbers come with useful options. Position means placing the number at the top or bottom, left, centre or right. Format lets you choose ordinary numbers, small Roman numerals, or letters. Start at lets the numbering begin at any number, such as five. The last option shows the page number with the total, like page two of ten.

Here is how to keep the cover page clean. A report's cover page usually has no header or page number. In Word, open the header and tick Different First Page. In Writer, give the first page the First Page style, which has no header by default. The second page still shows its correct number.

Books printed on both sides of the paper use another option. In Word, tick Different Odd and Even Pages. Then odd pages can show the number on the right edge. Even pages can show it on the left edge. This way, the numbers always sit on the outer edge, like in your textbooks.

Pause and predict. A report has twelve pages, with page numbers at the bottom. You delete the whole of page four. What number does the last page show now? It shows eleven, because the page number field updates by itself.

Let us set up a project report. The header holds the school name, right aligned. The left side of the footer holds the student name and roll number. The centre of the footer shows the page number with the total, like page two of ten. And Different First Page is ticked, so the cover stays clean.

Let us revise what we learned today. The header is in the top margin, and the footer is in the bottom margin. You type them once, and they repeat on every page. Page numbers are fields, so they update when pages change. Different First Page keeps the cover page clean. And odd and even pages can have different headers and footers. Try adding them to your next assignment.