Different Headers & Footers for First, Odd & Even Pages in a Word Document

A header is the common content that is displayed at the top of each page, while the footer is common content that is displayed at the bottom of each page.

Read how to add a header and/or footer to a Microsoft Word document.

By default, all pages in a Word document use a common header and/or footer. You can, however, customise the document such that you have different headers and/or footers on any one or more of the following:

• First page
• Odd and even pages

For example:

We can customise the document such that:

• the first page of a document has no header or footer
• odd pages have page numbers on the right and the document title on the left
• even pages have page numbers appear on the left and the author name on the right

A Tutorial

Let us now see how we can add different headers and footers to the first, odd and even pages of a document.

This post assumes that the document in which headers and footers are being added has no sections/section breaks. Adding different headers and footers to different parts of a document using sections will be explained in another blog post.

We have demonstrated adding different footers to first, odd and even pages. You can add headers in a similar way.

Creating a Sample Document

We will create a new document and use the rand() function to generate random text in the document so that we have a multi-page document to which we can add headers and footers.

1. Create a new blank document.
2. Type =rand(60,4) and press <Enter>. This will generate 60 paragraphs of 4 lines each. The length of the document will be 6 pages.
3. Save the document.

By default, all pages of the document will have a common header and/or footer on all pages. If you change the footer text on one page, the footer will change on all pages.

1. On the Insert tab, in the Header & Footer group, click Footer. Note that the footer section is labelled as Footer.
2. Add some text to the footer on any page. This text will be displayed on the footer of all pages.
3. Delete all content from the footer.
4. Save the document.

Enabling Different Headers and Footers for First, Odd, and Even Pages

1. On the Layout tab, in the Page Setup group, click the dialog box launcher.
   
   
2. In the Page Setup dialog box, click the Layout tab.
3. Under the Headers and footers group, select Different odd and even AND Different first page.
   
4. Click OK.
5. Scroll to the first page by clicking <CTRL+Home>.
6. On the Insert tab, in the Header & Footer group, click Footer.
7. Scroll through the document and observe the footer areas.
   

    

   Note that now the footers are labelled:

   • First Page Footer
     
   • Even Page Footer
     
   • Odd Page Footer
     
8. Adding Footers to Even Pages:
   1. Click in footer of any even page.
   2. In the Header and Footer tab, in the Header and Footer group, click Footer and then click Blank (Three Columns). The placeholders are added to the footer.
      

      

   3. Click on the [Type here] on the left.
   4. In the Header and Footer tab, in the Header and Footer group, click Page Number and then select Current Position and click Accent Bar 1. The page number is added to the footer.
      
      
   5. Click the [Type here] in the center.
   6. Press <Delete>.
   7. Click the [Type here] on the right.
   8. Type Microsoft Word Tips & Tricks.
      
   9. Scroll through the document and observe that:
      • all even pages have this footer.
      • the first page and odd pages have no footer text.
9. Adding Footers to Odd Pages:
   1. Click in footer of any odd page.
   2. In the Header and Footer tab, in the Header and Footer group, click Footer and then click Blank (Three Columns). The placeholders are added to the footer.
   3. Click on the [Type here] on the left.
   4. Type Microsoft Word Tips & Tricks.
   5. Click the [Type here] in the center.
   6. Press <Delete>.
   7. Click the [Type here] on the right.
   8. In the Header and Footer tab, in the Header and Footer group, click Page Number and then select Current Position and click Accent Bar 2. The page number is added to the footer.
      
      
   9. Scroll through the document and observe that:
      • all odd pages have this footer
      • the first page footer is blank
      • all even pages have the footer text added in step 9
10. In the Header and Footer tab, click Close Header and Footer.
11. Save the document.