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

Word 2007-2013 (for Word 97-2003 click here)

What You Will Learn

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

This chapter last edited by Charles Kenyon on Thursday 02 May 2013 .

Using sections in Word 2007, Word 2010, and Word 3013

  Word 2007-2013 put the controls for section breaks under the Page Layout tab under "Breaks."

How to view a Section Break

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

You can also view them in Print Layout view using the Show All button on the Home tab.

Practice: Inserting a section break (Word 2007/2010/2013)

1. Open a blank document.
2. Change your document view to Draft.
3. Type the following: Title Page.
4. Now insert a new page section break: Page Layout (tab) > Break (right side of page setup group).
5. Choose Next Page Section Break.
6. Type Table of Contents.
7. Insert a new page section break: Page Layout (tab) > Break (right side of page setup group).
8. Choose Next Page Section Break.
9. Type Main document.

View of exercise document in Word 2010. (2007 will have the Pizza button instead of the File tab)

View your document in Print Layout. You now have three sections. Switch between Draft and Page Layout views in this document to see how the section break appearance differs. (We will be using this document in the next exercise.) Note: To make it easier to see the example, I applied the Heading 1 style to each of the lines.

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 Page Layout (tab) >click Orientation.
4. In the Orientation area, select Landscape.
5. By default, this change will apply only to the section you are in.

6. The last page should now be landscape and the rest of the document should still be portrait.
7. Press CTRL+HOME to go to the top of the document.
8. Choose Page Layout (tab) and click on the Page setup dialog (arrow in bottom right corner of group)
9. Click on the Layout tab of this dialog box
10. In the center under "Page" is a drop-down for Vertical Alignment
11. In this Vertical Alignment section, select Center from the drop-down list.
12. Click OK. Your "TITLE PAGE" text should now be centered vertically.
13. Try changing margins in a specific section. (Page Layout tab)

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.

Word 2007-2013 put the controls for the Headers and Footers under the Insert tab.

Insert tab in Word 2007

Header gallery                                        Footer Gallery

View of the Header and Footer Tools when in edit Header mode

Note: If you Edit the Header or Footer rather than insert one of the Building Blocks the formatting starts with a blank area using the Header and Footer paragraph styles. For some reason, the Building Block headers and footers directly format rather than use these styles. The basic style has tab settings for a Center tab at 3.25" and a Right tab at 6.5". These are based on 1" margins. The Building Block headers and footers tend to use Center and Right justifications rather than the tab settings. You can easily view these settings by clicking the Ruler box under the View tab.

If you want to change the appearance of all of the headers and footers in a document, modify the Header and Footer Styles. Your author tends to have headers and footers extend outside the page margins by half an inch and be in Italic using a different font. I use sanserif fonts for headers and footers and serif fonts for body text. This is intended to emphasize that the headers and footers are outside of the body, a textual frame for the page. It is intended that they provide information without interrupting the reader's flow from page to page.

Practice: Insert a Header and Footer

Different First Page

Practice: Turn on Different First Page

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 activate the Header and Footer Tools contextual tab.

3. Check Different First Page.
4. Notice the Header area now says "First Page Header -Section 1-".
   
5. Click on the Close Header and Footer button.
6. Save this document.
7. Go to the next page (section). Note that the header (not on Section 1) shows in Section 2 (and 3).
8. Double-click in the header and note that the designation there is "Header -Section 2-"
9. On the right side it still says "Same as Previous." If you were to select different First Page for this section as well, it would give you the same First Page Header as the previous section (blank).

Different Odd and Even Pages

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. This option is just under the Different First Page option.

Link to 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 Link to Previous command. It is important to turn OFF the Link to Previous option FIRST before you make any other changes. This will prevent the previous section from being changed as well.

Page Numbers in Word 2007-2013

Page numbers are relatively simple, but the interface can make them seem complicated. Page numbers in Word are always fields. We will start by looking at how to insert them through the Interface's Insert Page Number functions and then look at how they can be inserted and formatted directly.

Word comes with a number of built-in formats that are stored in building blocks.

You can easily add a page number to your document under the Insert tab. Click on the Page Number button and you'll get a short menu giving a choice of positions as well as the option to format or remove page numbers. If you select one of the positions, you'll get a gallery view of your options (below). Note that this gallery has a scroll bar. (Don't see a gallery?)

Note that all of the positions except Current Position put the page number in the current header or footer replacing that header/footer. This includes the numbers in the page margins.

Warning about Page Number Insertion

Repeat: Inserting page numbers using the gallery will replace current headers or footers.

If you already have a header or footer and want a page number go into the header / footer edit mode and insert a page number at the current position. This will not replace the header / footer.

Fields

Again, page numbers are fields. This is true no matter how you insert them. If you select a page number and press Shift-F9 to toggle field codes, you will see { PAGE },  a very simple field code. If you ever need to insert this manually you can do so through the Insert Field dialog. You can access this by pressing Ctrl-Alt-F9 or under the Insert tab > Quick Parts > Field.

The Insert Field dialog box is shown at the right. Using the choices shown will result in a lower case Roman numeral page number in the current formatting. The field would look like this:
{ PAGE  \* roman  \* MERGEFORMAT  }

You do not have to choose the page type when you insert the page number but it is easiest to do so.

Other useful fields are the Numpages and Secpages fields which give the total number of pages in the document and Section respectively.

Format Page Numbers

You will need to understand how to format page numbers. For example, you may add a Table of Contents to your document and would like the page numbering of the front matter before the body of your document 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. See How to set up a document with front matter numbered separately.

For more information on using chapter numbering, see http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Numbering/ChapterNumber.htm.

For more information on numbering appendixes, see http://www.ShaunaKelly.com/word/numbering/NumberingAppendixes.html.

Practice: Format Page Numbers - Manual Method 1

Create a new blank document.

Save As (your initials) Sections. (i.e. "ckk Sections.docx" becomes the document name)

1. Type

   Confidential Employment Agreement
   ZZZ Company
   January 1, 2012

2. Choose Page Layout(tab) > Breaks. 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. Still on the Page Layout tab choose Orientation and select Landscape.
10. Save the document.
11. Press CTRL+HOME to get the top of the document.
12. Click on the Insert tab. (What follows is manual method 1 to insert a page number)
13. Click on the Footer button and choose Edit Footer. Your cursor should be in the footer of the first page.
14. Notice that it says: Footer Section 1. We do not want a page number on the first page so leave it blank.
15. Click the Show Next button to jump to the next footer. It should read: Footer Section 2
16. Notice on the right that it says Same As Previous.
17. Click the Link to Previous button in the Ribbon. This disconnects Section 2 footer from Section 1 footer.
18. On the Page Number button select Format Page Number. The Page Number Format dialog box opens.

    

19. From the Number format drop-down list, choose lowercase Roman Numerals.
20. Under Page Numbering, select Start at to have the page numbers start counting from this section.
21. Click OK to return to the footer.
22. Click the On the Page Number choose current position.
23. Press your left arrow key once to move in front of the page number.
24. Press the tab key to move the number to the middle of the footer (By default, there is a Center tab set in the footer style.)
25. Go back to Edit Footer under Footer button
26. Click the Show Next button to jump to the next footer. It should read: Footer Section 3.
27. Turn off Same As Previous using the Link to Previous button on the Header/Footer Tools ribbon.
28. Click Page Number Format under the Page Number button.
29. The number format should already be Arabic numerals; choose Start At and change the Start At to 1. Click OK.
30. Click Show Next to move the cursor to Footer-Section 4.
31. Turn off Same As Previous.
32. Change the number format to capital letters.
33. Click Close on the Header/Footer Tools Ribbon.
34. Switch to Print Layout and make sure your page numbers are correct.

Practice: Format Page Numbers - Manual Method 2

1. If you went through manual method 1, close that document without saving and reopen it.
2. Otherwise, repeat steps one through 11 above.

--

12. Click on the Insert tab. (What follows is manual method 2 to insert a page number)
13. Click on the Footer button and choose Edit Footer. Your cursor should be in the footer of the first page.
14. Notice that it says: Footer Section 1. We do not want a page number on the first page so leave it blank.
15. Click the Show Next button to jump to the next footer. It should read: Footer Section 2
16. Notice on the right that it says Same As Previous.
17. Click the Link to Previous button in the Ribbon. This disconnects Section 2 footer from Section 1 footer.
18. Press the Tab key to move to the center of the page (Center tab setting in the footer).
19. Type PAGE \@ roman and select what you just typed.
20. Press Ctrl-F9 to put field braces around it: { PAGE \@ roman }.
21. Press the F9 key to see your page number: ii
22. Select that and under the Page Number button select Format Page Number.
23. Choose to Start At i. (You could have started with a simple PAGE field and edited its format to roman numeral as well.)
24. Press OK.
25. Use the Show Next button to move to the Section 3 footer.
26. Unlink the footer from the previous section.
27. Select the page number and format it to start at 1. Note that is already in Arabic number format.
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 Tools Ribbon.
32. Switch to Print Layout and make sure your page numbers are correct.

The above manual methods are important if you want to add page numbers to already existing footers (or headers). What follows is the simplest way, but it will replace existing headers or footers.

Practice: Format Page Numbers - Insert Method

1. If you went through manual method 1 or 2, close that document without saving and reopen it.
2. Otherwise, repeat steps one through 11 above.

--

12. Click on the Insert tab. (What follows is the Insert Page Number Method.)
13. Click on the Footer button and choose Edit Footer. Your cursor should be in the footer of the first page.
14. Notice that it says: Footer Section 1. We do not want a page number on the first page so leave it blank.
15. Click the Show Next button to jump to the next footer. It should read: Footer Section 2
16. Notice on the right that it says Same As Previous.
17. Click the Link to Previous button in the Ribbon. This disconnects Section 2 footer from Section 1 footer.
18. On the Page Number button select: Bottom of Page - Plain Number 2
19. Notice this gives you a number centered in the bottom of the page.
20. Select that number and on the Page Number drop down select Format Page Number.
21. Choose lower-case Roman numerals and start at i.
22. Press OK.
23. Use the Show Next button to move to the Section 3 footer.
24. Unlink the footer from the previous section.
25. Select the page number and format it to start at 1. Note that is already in Arabic number format.
26. Click Show Next to move the cursor to Footer-Section 4.
27. Turn off Same As Previous.
28. Change the number format to capital letters.
29. Click Close on the Header/Footer Tools Ribbon.
30. Switch to Print Layout and make sure your page numbers are correct.

You can close and delete your practice document.

How to Put a Portrait Page Number on a Landscape Page by Bill Coan, MVP, Dave Rado, MVP, and Suzanne Barnhill, MVP

Word 2010 Tutorial on Headers and Footers

Headers and Footers in Word 2003 - From Basic to Elaborate - a Tutorial

Columns

Columns are a creature of sections, like headers and footers. The command to set them up is found under the Page Layout tab.

More Columns... gives you a dialog box which gives you even more control.

The "Apply to:" choice of "This point forward" allows you to insert a continuous section break where you are and make the rest of the current section have the column settings you want. The default is "This section." Another choice is to have the column layout apply to the entire document. The Start new column checkbox is one way to insert a column break before the bottom of the page. If you select the Left or Right column preset it unchecks the Equal column width setting. Line between inserts a vertical line between columns.

You can set the number of columns to a larger number if you want. Note though that more than 3 columns is not practical on a portrait layout letter-size page. Unchecking the Equal column width setting lets you manually change your column width. The spacing between columns is preset at 0.5." Adjusting this is a way to get all of your text on one page or fill out a page.

Practice: Change Formatting to Columns

1. Open the document with three sections from the Header/Footer Exercises.
2. Press Ctrl-End to go to the end of the document.
3. Press the ENTER after the Heading "Main Document"
4. Type =rand(30, 4) and press ENTER.
5. Go back to the point just under the heading.
6. Under the Page Layout tab, click on the Columns button and select the option for two columns.
7. Notice that if you were in Draft view you are now in Print Layout view.
8. Notice that your heading is inside the columns.
9. Press Ctrl-Z to undo the column formatting.
10. Click on the Columns button and this time select "More Columns..." to bring up the dialog box.
11. Select the two column preset and under "Apply to" select "This Point Forward."
12. Click OK.
13. Notice that your Heading is now outside the Column formatting. You have just created a new (continuous) section break.
14. Try clicking the option to have three columns instead of two under the Columns button. Note that it applies to the current section.
15. Click in the middle of the page in the middle of a paragraph.
16. Reopen the Columns dialog box by selecting "More Columns..." under the Columns button.
17. Select the two column preset and under "Apply to" select "This Point Forward."
18. Click OK.
19. Note that you now have a three column section followed by a two column section.
20. Note that the section break was inserted in the middle of your paragraph, even in the middle of a sentence!

The Column set up in Word is the equivalent to "Snaking columns" in Word Perfect. To get parallel columns in Word you would use Tables.

Trouble Shooting Sections, Headers and Footers, Page Numbering

Missing Page Number / Header / Footer Commands - greyed out - Charles Kenyon

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 Draft View, go to the Insert tab and Click on Header or Footer to Edit. If you switch to Print Layout View, double-click in the header or footer and the Header & Footer Tools 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.

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.

My Insert Header / Footer menu doesn't give me any options.

There are  no options for different headers / footers. What it says is just More headers / footers from office.com and save selection as header / footer.

Header and footer options are stored as building blocks. Sometimes this file can become corrupted. Here is how to handle it. The solution is a little different depending on your Word version.

I set my document for a "Different First Page" but that first-page header/footer is showing up on pages in the middle of my document.

Or, I have "Different First Page" set so I don't have a header/footer on the first page but all of my pages or a lot of my pages besides the first page have no header/footer.

Do you have section breaks? Each section has its own first page. The settings for headers/footers are separate for each section but are often linked so that the header/footer in the first section is continued throughout the document.

Actually, each section can have up to three different headers (and three different footers), which is the case if you have selected "Different odd and even" and "Different first page" (also on the Header & Footer Tools Design tab). When you have multiple headers (footers), each type must be separately unlinked from its "neighbor" in the preceding section. This gets especially complex when you have multiple sections on one page. (Thanks to Stefan Blom, MVP for putting this concept so well.)

I know I can have a different header/footer on the first page of my document / section. Can I have a different one on the last page?

Yes, but it takes some work with fields. This is beyond the scope of this article but involves using an IF field to test if the page is the last page of the document or section and give a different result depending on the answer. See the Fields article to see an example.

My Insert Page Number menu doesn't give me any options.

There are  no options for different page numbers. What it says is just More page numbers from office.com and save selection as page number.

Page number options are stored as building blocks. Sometimes this file can become corrupted. Here is how to handle it. The solution is a little different depending on your Word version.

I made a change in my Section 2 Header / Footer and the Section 1 Header / Footer changed too.

You need to unlink the header / footer. First, though, Copy your new contents to the Clipboard. Then press Ctrl-Z until it is back to what it looked like before you made the changes. Then unlink the header / footer and Paste your changes back. Remember, each header/footer's linked state is independent of all others.

I added a next-page section break to my document. It should have been a continuous section break instead.

The way to handle this is through the Page Layout Dialog. The simplest way to access this is by double-clicking on the Ruler. It can also be accessed through the Page Layout tab's dialog box dropdown. On the Layout tab is a dropdown that lets you change the type of the current section.

 

See also Troubleshooting Sections