On Monday, I showed you how to add a Chapter Heading to your Microsoft Word documents. The nice thing about this is that it shows the reader where they are in the document at any give time.
That is very effective in long technical and financial documents, such as Business Plans, where the reader may have hundreds of pages to read through.
Why Format the Headers and Footers?
If you write for a living, you’ll want your documents to look at professional as possible. I use the Header and Footer section to include content that makes the document look more professional, have more use to the reader, and ultimately makes my material look better than other writers.
One way I do this is to add the Document Name into the Footer. This reminds the reader what they are reading, especially when the scroll to the end of the document or when the document is printed out and, for example, the cover sheet is missing.
Without this information in the footer, the document looks unfinished.
We don’t want that, do we?
How To Insert the Document Name in the Header or Footer
What if you only want to show the document title in the footer? What’s the fastest way to do this? In Microsoft Word, there are usually a few ways to do the same thing. Which is good and bad
Here’s one way to add the document title to the header or footer.
- Open Word.
- Go to File, Properties. This is where you can add metadata about the file, such as the document name, owner, date and keywords.
- Enter the document name in the Title Field (i.e. first field)Close this and return to the Word document as usual.
- On the View menu, click Header and Footer.
- From the Insert drop-down menu, select Filename.
- This adds the Filename to the Footer.
If you have other questions about Microsoft Word, let me know in the comments below.
Word 2003 v 2007
As the menu is different in both versions, I have included the steps for 2003 first. To do this with 2007, click the Start button and then look for the Options.
How do I?
You can also add the date, page numbers, and other information this way. It’s the simplest way to keep your Microsoft Word documents organized.
If you have other questions about Microsoft Word, drop me a line.
As most readers use Microsoft Word 2003, these steps will apply to this version of Word. If there is any confusion, please let me know.