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Word for Mac: Designing Headers & Footers

Anonymous
2024-08-09T03:38:22+00:00

I am trying to design headers and footers in Microsoft Word for Mac (v. 16.87) that are as elaborate as the Headers & Footers I can design for Excel documents. In Excel you can choose to have Footer fields like Page x of y of pages, File name, set the fonts of all of the above, etc. When I view the options under the Header & Footer menu in Word all I get is Page number, Date and time or a Picture. I see no way of putting in the File name, Number of pages in the document or setting the fonts for these fields.

Is there a way of designing more elaborate headers and footers in Word than what seems to be provided in Word's menus?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For business | MacOS

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  1. Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 434.8K Reputation points
    2024-08-09T16:01:26+00:00

    Even if you could add to the Ribbon it would require a custom tab & you'd need to switch to it in order to use the tools — I don't see how it could provide any advantage. Neither are they available for the QAT. Macros would have to be used.

    There are at least 3 other options which IMO would be far more efficient:

    • Set up a new document to include margins, custom Styles, Header, Footer, etc. Save it as a Template [.dotx or .dotm] then use File> New from Template to generate new documents based on the template, or
    • Assign keyboard shortcuts to the AutoText items you want to use, or
    • Select the footer in an existing document & save it as a new AutoText item.

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  1. Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 434.8K Reputation points
    2024-08-09T04:33:19+00:00

    To start with, have a look in the main menu bar for INSERT> AUTOTEXT.

    Other options for Page Numbers are available there also.

    Keep in mind that much of what is available on the Ribbon is just the most superficial aspects of the features. They're provided there for convenience purposes. The real power of the program is in the underlying dialogs which provide more advanced capabilities.

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-08-09T16:22:36+00:00

    Understood.

    Thanks again, Bob.

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-08-09T14:02:53+00:00

    Thank you, Bob! Your instructions worked.

    I thought I might be able to reduce the number of steps required to do this frequently required operation by going to Word > Preferences > Ribbon & Toolbar > Customize Tool Tabs, but alas I can see no such Number of pages or Filename insertion commands in the All Commands list below on the left.

    Do you know if there is a way to drag commands like Number of pages or Filename into the Ribbon?

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