Different Headers and Footers in your MS Word Documents

A reader wrote to me recently inquiring how he could have a different header on different pages of his document.  I am always suprised by how many e-mails I receive on this topic!

When you create a header or footer in your MS Word document, Word will, by default, use that header or footer throughout your entire document.

In order to have a different header or footer on different pages, you must tell Word that is what you want.  How to do that? The answer of course is SECTIONS! You have to divide your document into different sections and once you do that, then you must break the connection between the header or footer in the current section and the previous one.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

1. At the beginning of your document, place your cursor at the beginning of the page where you would to have different headers or footers.
2. On the Page Layout tab of your Ribbon, in the Page Setup group, click Breaks.
3. Under Section Breaks, select Next Page.

4. Place your cursor at the beginning of the next page where you want to have a different header or footer (i.e., a new chapter in your document, or a new section of a contract).
5. On the Page Layout tab, in the Page Setup group, click Breaks.
6. Under Section Breaks, select Next Page.
7. Repeat the steps above for every section break that you may need in your document.

Now that you have created your document sections, you need to break the connection between the sections.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

1. At the beginning of your document, click int he first section where you want the header or footer to be different.
2. On the Insert tab of your Ribbon, in the Header & Footer group, click Header or Footer.
3. Click Edit Header or Edit Footer.
4. On the Headers & Footers tab, in the Navigation group, click Link to Previous to break the connection between the header or footer in that section and the previous section.
5. Change your existing header or footer or create a new header or footer for that section.
6. On the Design tab, in the Navigatioin group (in the contextual tab), click Next Section to advance your cursor to the header or footer of the next section.
7. On the Headers & Footers tab, in the Navigation group, click Link to Previous to break the connection between the header and footer.
8. Repeat the steps above for all sections in your document where you need different headers or footers.

Word will now do exactly as you have told it and you will have different headers and footers throughout your document!