Headers and footers are the strips of space at the top and bottom of every page in a Word document. They sit outside the main body area and repeat on every page — or, with a bit of configuration, on alternating pages or all pages except the first. They’re where you put things like a company name, document title, page numbers, the date, or a confidentiality notice. Once you’ve set them up, they look after themselves no matter how much the main content changes.
Opening the Header and Footer Editor
Double-click anywhere in the top margin area of your document (above the main text) to open the header. Alternatively, go to the Insert tab and click Header, then choose either a built-in style or Edit Header at the bottom of the dropdown.
When the header editor is active, the main body of the document greys out slightly, and a dashed line appears separating the header area from the body. A new Header & Footer tab appears in the ribbon with all the tools you need. The same process applies to footers — double-click in the bottom margin, or go to Insert > Footer > Edit Footer.
To close the header or footer and return to editing the main body, either double-click in the main body area or click the Close Header and Footer button at the right end of the Header & Footer ribbon tab.
Adding Text to a Header or Footer
When the header or footer area is active, just click and type. The header has a default tab stop in the centre and another at the right margin, which makes it easy to place text on the left, centre and right side of the same header line. Press Tab once to move to the centre, press Tab again to move to the right.
For example, a common business header has the company name on the left, the document title in the centre, and the date on the right — all on a single line using two tab presses.
Inserting Page Numbers
In the Header & Footer tab, click Page Number. A dropdown lets you choose where the number appears:
- Top of Page — inserts into the header
- Bottom of Page — inserts into the footer
- Page Margins — places the number in the left or right margin
- Current Position — inserts the number wherever your cursor is
Each option shows a gallery of positioning styles (left-aligned, centred, right-aligned, etc.). Click the one you want.
Page X of Y Format
To show “Page 2 of 10” rather than just “2”, go to Page Number > Format Page Numbers. In the dialog, the number format dropdown lets you switch from plain numbers to Roman numerals or letters. To get “Page X of Y”, use the Current Position option and type “Page ” before inserting the page number field, then type ” of ” and insert a total pages field.
To insert the total pages count manually: position your cursor after the “of “, then go to the Insert tab, click Quick Parts > Field, and from the Field names list select NumPages. Click OK. This inserts a field that always shows the total page count.
Inserting Automatic Date Fields
Rather than typing today’s date (which becomes wrong immediately), insert an automatic date field. In the Header & Footer tab, click Insert Date and Time. A dialog appears with date and time format options. If you want the date to update automatically every time the document is opened, tick the Update automatically checkbox before clicking OK.
Note that auto-updating dates mean the date shown will always be the current date — useful for templates, but not for documents where you want to record when something was created. For fixed dates, don’t tick the checkbox, or simply type the date as text.
Different Header on the First Page
If your document has a title page or cover page, you usually don’t want the header or footer to appear on that first page. In the Header & Footer tab, tick the Different First Page checkbox. This creates a separate, blank header and footer for the first page only. You can leave it blank to suppress the header entirely, or type different content into it — for example, just the company logo with no page number.
Ticking Different First Page doesn’t delete your existing header — it just hides it on page one. The header you set up continues appearing from page two onwards.
Different Headers on Odd and Even Pages
For documents that will be printed and bound — reports, booklets, proposals — you may want the header on left-hand pages to show different content from right-hand pages. In the Header & Footer tab, tick Different Odd & Even Pages.
Word now gives you separate header areas for odd pages and even pages. A common use: the document title on odd (right-hand) pages, and the chapter or section title on even (left-hand) pages. Page numbers often mirror too — aligned to the outer edge on each page so they appear at the top-right on right-hand pages and top-left on left-hand pages.
Working with Multiple Sections
Longer documents are often divided into sections using section breaks. By default, each section inherits its header and footer from the previous section — this is called being “linked to previous”. If you want a different header in a particular section (for example, a different chapter title), you need to unlink it first.
Navigate to the header in the new section. In the Header & Footer tab, click Link to Previous to toggle the link off (the button will appear unlit/deselected). You can now change that section’s header without affecting the previous one.
This also applies if you want to suppress the header entirely in one section — unlink it, then delete the content from that section’s header.
Removing Headers and Footers
To remove a header entirely, go to Insert > Header > Remove Header. Same for footers: Insert > Footer > Remove Footer. This clears all content from the header or footer for the current section (or the whole document if there’s only one section).
To remove just the page number without removing other header content, click on the page number field and delete it as you would any other text.
Formatting Tips for Professional-Looking Headers
- Add a bottom border to your header — with the header active, go to Home > Borders (the dropdown arrow next to the borders button) and choose Bottom Border. This draws a line beneath the header text, cleanly separating it from the body.
- Reduce the font size — header text is usually smaller than body text. 9pt or 10pt works well in most cases. Apply it the same way you would in the main document.
- Use the same font as your document — unless you have a reason not to, matching the header font to your body text looks more polished than the default.
- Don’t make the header too tall — it eats into the page area. The header margin can be adjusted in Layout > Margins: the “From edge: Header” value controls how far from the top of the page the header starts.
Common Use Cases
- Business letters — company name and logo in the header, page number in the footer, “Page 1 of 1” suppressed on single-page letters using Different First Page
- Reports — document title in the header, page number centred in the footer, Different First Page to leave cover page clean
- Confidential documents — “CONFIDENTIAL” in the header and footer so it appears on every printed page
- Templates — auto-updating date field in the footer so every document created from the template shows the correct date
