Page Headers & Footers

One thing you might want to insert are page numbers and headers. To get access to the headers and footers editor, on the View drop-down menu select Headers and Footers.

This will pop up. If you look at the right-hand end you find the button to switch between the header and footer editor. You must switch to the footer before entering anything you want to appear there. There is also the close button to exit this special editor.

You still have access to all the normal formatting controls of font size and position for the text in the header and footers. Just be aware that if your header has too much text to fit, it will be trimmed when it comes to print-time. You might need to adjust the top and bottom margins to give yourself space.

Page numbering

By default, Word does not add page numbers. It is important to add page numbers to any script. The pages get dropped, moved and are easily shuffled so always add page numbers to every print of your script.

To insert page numbers just click the # button. If you want the printout to say ‘1 of 10’, you need to type in the word ‘of’ with a space either side. Then click the ++ button and Word will insert the total number of pages in the document. (This can also be done with one click using the ‘inser auto text’ option: more below.)

If you are keeping the chapters separate while editing your book, you might want to print out a chapter at time. You can keep the page numbers in order by inserting the start page number, but this means you have to know how many pages there are in the preceding chapter. Better, perhaps, if you are still working on the chapters to tell Word to print the chapter number. Click the right-hand # button to get this menu.

There are many other items that can be inserted. You can insert the time and date. These are the details when the document is actually printed. This can be useful to identify the most recent version.

You can also access the page setup options from this tool-bar and there are also a range of options where Word will insert text. One option will print the name and, if you want, the location where the document is stored on your computer. If you keep losing documents this facility might be useful and is invaluable if people are sharing a computer.

Headers and footers are very useful. You can trick word into providing you with enhanced layout by combining these functions with the printout controls which, for example, allow you to print the odd (right-hand or facing pages) and then even (left-hand or verso pages). So you could set up the header for the odd and then the even pages, adjusting the heading information between each print run. It is fiddly but allows you to emulate the sort of controls you can achieve with specialised book-layout software such as Quark and Indesign.

Chas Jones 2006

Making the most of MS 'Word'

 ©WritersServices.com 2000-2009