Creating Headers and Footers

Apache OpenOffice 4.1 Writer Guide

Chapter 4: Formatting Pages

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• Introduction
• Choosing a Layout Method
• Setting up Basic Page Layout Using Styles
  • Inserting a Page Break without Switching the Style
  • Defining a Different First Page for a Document
  • Changing Page Orientation within a Document
    • Setting Up a Landscape Page Style
    • Inserting a Landscape Page into a Portrait Document
• Changing Page Margins
• Using Columns to Define the Page Layout
  • Defining the Columns on a Page
    • Specifying the Number of Columns
    • Formatting Column Width and Spacing
    • Formatting Separator Lines
    • Reverting to a Single-Column Layout
  • Changing the Number of Columns for Existing Text
  • Distributing Text Across Columns
• Using Frames for Page Layout
  • Creating Frames
  • Moving, Resizing, and Changing Frame Attributes
  • Anchoring Frames
  • Linking Frames
  • Other Frame Options
• Using Tables for Page Layout
  • Example: Creating Sideheads Using Tables
• Using Sections for Page Layout
  • Creating Sections
    • Naming Sections
    • Linking Sections
    • Write Protecting Sections
    • Password Protecting Sections
    • Hiding Sections
    • Formatting a Section into Columns
    • Indenting the Section from Margins
    • Changing the Background of the Section
    • Customizing Footnotes and Endnotes in a Section
  • Saving a New Section
  • Editing and Deleting Sections
    • Deleting Sections
    • Editing Section Attributes
    • Editing the Format of a Section
• Updating Links
  • Updating Links Automatically
  • Updating Links Manually
• Creating Headers and Footers
  • Formatting Headers and Footers
  • Portrait Headers on Landscape Pages
• Numbering Pages
  • Preliminaries: Fields
  • Preliminaries: Insert and Format a Header
  • Simple Page Numbering
  • Combining Header Text and Page Number
  • Changing the Number Format
  • Numbering the First Page Something Other than 1
  • Numbering Pages by Chapter
  • Restarting Page Numbering
    • Example: Restart Page Numbering: a Preface
  • Problems with Restarting Page Numbering
    • Solving the page count problem
  • Numbering Portrait and Landscape Pages
• Defining Borders and Backgrounds
  • Adding a Border
  • Adding Color to the Background
  • Adding a Graphic to the Background
  • Deleting Color or Graphics from the Background

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Creating Headers and Footers

Headers are portions of a document that always appear at the top of a page; footers appear at the bottom of a page. Typically, headers display the title or chapter name of a document.

In AOO, headers are specified by page styles; therefore, when inserted, all the pages with the same page style will display the same header. Chapter 7 (Working with Styles) describes how to format a header as part of the page style formatting. For the purpose of this example, we will insert a header in the Default pages using manual formatting. Select from the main menu Insert → Header → [Page Style]. The submenu lists the page styles used in your document. In addition, the submenu includes the entry All, which activates headers on all the pages of the document regardless of their page style.

For our example, select the Default menu item to activate the headers only on the pages that use the Default page style. Similarly, to insert a footer, choose Insert → Footer.

The Insert Menu can also be used for deleting a pre-existing header or footer for a page style. If that page style has a check mark in front of it, clicking on it opens an AOO dialog box warning about this and asking whether you want to delete the header or footer for that particular page style.

Depending on which option you choose, an area such as that in Figure 35 will appear at the top or bottom of the page. In this area you can enter text and graphics that will appear on every page.

Figure 35: A page with a page header

Items such as document titles, chapter titles, and page numbers, which often go into headers and footers, are best added as fields. That way, if something changes, the headers, and footers are all updated automatically. Fields are covered in Chapter 14 (Working with Fields), but one example here may be useful. To insert the document title into the header:

1. Select File → Properties → Description, enter a title for your document in the Title area, and click  OK  to close the dialog box.
2. Add a header (Insert → Header → Default).
3. Place the cursor in the header part of the page.
4. Select Insert → Fields → Title. The title should appear on a gray background (which does not show when printed and can be turned off).
5. To change the title for the whole document, choose File → Properties → Description.