Setting Up Headers and Footers

After you've set up the pages of your book (as explained in the last newsletter), you'll need to set up headers and footers. Using Microsoft Word, you might think you'd find headers and footers under the Insert menu. Not so; they're under View. Why? Because your document *already* includes headers and footers. Every Word document does. But they're empty until you put something in them. Here's how:

1. Click View > Header and Footer. You'll now find your cursor in the Header pane, with a nice little toolbar that lets you do various things:

Insert Page Number

Insert Number of Pages (so you can create a footer like "Page 7 of 123")

Format Page Number (1, 2, 3; a, b, c; i, ii, iii; and so on. Include chapter number [1-1; 1-A]. Continue from previous section [neat!] or specify a starting number.)

Insert Date (useful for creating slug lines)

Insert Time (ditto)

[Activate] Page Setup (handy!)

Show/Hide Document Text (to keep things uncluttered while creating headers and footers)

[Set header and footer to] Same as Previous [section] (in case you're using columns, for example, in one of your chapters; I almost always turn this off)

Switch between Header and Footer

Show Previous [header or footer]

Show Next [header or footer]

Close Header and Footer

2. Skip the header of your first page (labeled "First Page Header"), which will be the opening page of your chapter and thus doesn't need a running head. To do so, click the button to Switch between Header and Footer.

3. You're now in the footer (labeled "First Page Footer") of your chapter's opening page. Do you want a page number? I do. To get one, click the Insert Page Number button. (If this were front matter, you could click the Format Page Number button and set your numbering to use Roman numerals.) I *don't* recommend creating a page number with Insert > Page Number, because it puts the page number into a frame.

4. Decide whether you want the page number on the left, center, or right of your page and make it so. The easiest way to do this--and the most heretical, since it doesn't use styles--is to click Format > Paragraph > Alignment and pick your pleasure.

5. Move to the next page by clicking the Show Next button. This will take you to the next page's footer (labeled "Even Page Footer"). Since we previously set up our document to have different first, left, and right pages, you'll need to insert another page number here; it won't just continue the numbering from the first page. Again, format the number as left, center, or right. Since this is an even (and therefore left, or verso) page, you may want to put the page number on the left.

6. Repeat step 5 for the footer on the next page, which will be a right-hand (recto) page. You may want to put the page number on the right.

7. Move to the previous page's header (verso; labeled "Even Page Header") by clicking the Show Previous button and then the button to Switch between Header and Footer. Type the text of your header into the Header pane. In book publishing, items that are more inclusive go on the left; items that are less inclusive go on the right. A few options:

LEFT RIGHT

Author Name Book Title

Author Name Part Title

Author Name Chapter Title

Book Title Part Title

Book Title Chapter Title

Part Title Chapter Title

8. Again, the easiest way to put the running head on the left, center, or right of the page is to click Format > Paragraph > Alignment. Since this is an even page, you may want to put the running head on the left.

9. Move to the next page's header (recto) by clicking the Show Next button. Type the text of your header into the Header pane. Since this is an odd page, you may want to put the running head on the right.

10. Set the font and point size for your running heads and page numbers by modifying their styles under Format > Style. You want them to match the rest of your text, right? While you're in there, make sure they're not set up with an automatic first-line paragraph indent, which will make them look funny on the page.

11. Adjust the space between headers, text blocks, and footers by clicking the Page Setup button and the Margins tab. Then set the distance "From edge" (of the paper) of the header and footer. This may take some experimentation to get right, but when you're finished, your pages should look pretty good.

12. Click the Close button to get back to your document text.

To see your handiwork, click View > Print Layout and set View > Zoom to Whole Page. Wow! (Note that your folios [page numbers] and running heads are automatically repeated on successive pages.)

You'll need to repeat this whole procedure for each succeeding chapter, and if all of your chapters are in one document, you'll need to separate them with section breaks. More on that next week.

_________________________________________

READERS WRITE

Thomas C Dixon wrote:

I edited a book recently that showed two book pages per screen, with the pages numbered consecutively. I've read your article on page sizing, etc., but can't get this effect. How is it achieved?

I responded:

You can achieve what you're describing like this:

1. Click File > Page Setup.

2. Click the Margins tab.

3. Set Orientation to Landscape.

4. Set your document (under Multiple Pages in Word 2002) to 2 pages per sheet.

5. Apply to whole document.

6. Click OK.

7. Click View > Zoom.

8. Click Many Pages.

9. Select two pages.

10. Click OK.

Thanks, Thomas!

Dan A. Wilson wrote:

I think your position is the right one: it isn't a matter of TELLING people HOW TO ADJUST, but of REMINDING them TO REMEMBER to resize or zoom, or both. I, too, have seen countless cases of tennis-match-spectator neck syndrome caused by the use of a newly purchased monitor at full display max. Especially now that LCDs are so widely in use, it's important that users learn to adjust window sizes.

Almost all of my programs except Word and my browsers now run in windows that show my desktop wallpaper behind them on all four sides, because running them any larger than that on a 19" LCD is just plain silly unless you're viewing them from across the room. In Word, I either run single document pages at 80 to 90 percent zoom, or side-by-side pages at 75 percent, and the displays of the latter are STILL larger than those of pages at maximized display and 100 percent zoom on my 17" CRT on the other desk.

The advantage of the larger monitors today is that you can display MORE; using them to display the same old stuff LARGER is pointless for most programs, and an invitation to whiplash injuries.

Large LCD monitors have very high native resolution settings, and are optimized for those settings. Running a 17" LCD monitor at a resolution of 800 x 600 is not only bad for the monitor but bad for the eyes: even the best image available at that resolution on such a monitor will be fuzzy.

I use a 19" LCD with Word windows maximized but with my zoom set to 90% normally. Gives me a slightly larger-than-lifesize view of the page.

Most of the time, though, I use the taskbar right-click control to Tile Windows Vertically, so that I can have two different docs or two different views (or versions) of the same doc open side-by-side, each with its own toolbar. I set the zoom for each doc to 75% then, and the page on the screen is still about the size of an 8.5 x 11 sheet. This is great when I want to check text against the Biblio for presence and identity of entry info, for instance.

Thanks, Dan!

_________________________________________

RESOURCES

Ed Millis wrote:

Your readers might be interested in the Google search add-in. Previously only for Excel, it has now been updated in a Word form also [for both PC and Mac]. This is great! I use it all the time to search newsgroups for information on specific issues. You can find it here:

http://www.rondebruin.nl/Google.htm.

I must confess that, although I've used Word for many years, I've never really used all it could do. I love macros for doing repetitive stuff, but templates? styles? and all the other neat things? Never touched them. Your newsletter, I believe, is going to help me tremendously! Again, many thanks.

Thanks, Ed!

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