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Word 2007 -- "Watermark" Table in Header Pushes Normal/Foreground Text to Page Bottom

Anonymous
2012-05-18T23:58:59+00:00

Hello All -

I'm doing some page design work. For my page guides, I've done the following:

  • Inserted a table into the header of my document as my "watermark."
  • Set my page margins to put boundaries on where normal text (foreground text) can appear.

The area where normal text can appear is approximately a 6" x 6" box. Lots of room for writing.

Yet the only place I can type is a single line of text at the bottom of the page. Go to two lines, and it starts a new page with text at the bottom of that new page.

When I delete the table, then the text begins at the top as it should.

The only other thing I can think to mention is that when in Header/Footer view, the markers appear as Footer/Header rather than Header/Footer.

Any takers? I can send the file to you.

RMJ

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-05-21T00:05:25+00:00

    A few months ago I read this MS support article:  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/211432.  I've been looking for it off and on since I read your post,  RMJo. I just found it.  It tells how to prevent "Word from moving the main document text (downward or upward) when the header or footer gets too large to fit in the margin" space. Look for the section How Headers and Footers Affect Margin Settings.

    I thought it might make the page work with a table watermark, and it seems to.  But, of course, you have a good solution already.

    Pam

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  1. Suzanne S Barnhill 277.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2012-05-20T12:17:13+00:00

    I disagree. Its being a table prevents it from being wrapped as Behind Text, but it is the wrapping that is the issue. This is standard header behavior: when you increase the size of the header, it pushes the document text down. It doesn't matter whether that content is ordinary text, a table, or graphics so long as it is formatted as In Line With Text. If header content is formatted as Behind Text, then it will be behind the document body.

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  1. Paul Edstein 82,861 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2012-05-19T06:36:03+00:00

    Did you set the text wrapping style of your table as Behind Text?

    There is no 'behind text' property for a table. Consequently, the table would have to be positioned inside a textbox so that the 'behind text' property of the textbox could be taken advantage of. When inside a textbox, a table can't have 'around' wrapping either.

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-05-19T02:50:15+00:00

    Hi Suzanne -

    In Table Properties > Table Tab the only table-vs-text alignment choices are:

    • Left
    • Center
    • Right
    • None
    • Around.

    I've been spectacularly unsuccessful in finding a "Behind Text" option. I'm accustomed to seeing it for pictures, but I don't recall ever seeing it for tables.

    I  set the table to Around because that is the only choice that would enable the Positioning dialog so that I could decide where the table should sit relative to the Column, Page, or Margin.

    In Positioning, I set the table to Horizontal and Vertical relative to the page, because the other settings visually cropped the table.

    The table is quite large; it comes close to touching the edges of the paper. Eyeballing it, I think there is about 1/4 inch on each side.

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  3. Suzanne S Barnhill 277.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2012-05-19T02:05:47+00:00

    Did you set the text wrapping style of your table as Behind Text?

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