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Understanding Margins and Headers and Footers

Anonymous
2013-08-12T19:08:21+00:00

Can someone give me a simple explanation as to how headers and footers interact with the top and bottom margins of a page e.g.

  • it seems as though the header resides within the space allocated to the top margin?

I have just been doing "trial and error" to figure this out with varying results - I tried to find something that would explain this better.

I could provide more specifics but I actually think I just need to know the "rules" as to what applies to what and what happens if one overlaps another object (e.g. if a header grows larger than the margin, what happens)?

Albert Gostick

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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  1. HansV 462.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2013-08-12T19:25:23+00:00

    The Layout tab of the Page Setup dialog has a part labeled From Edge, with a Header box and a Footer box.

    The number in the Header box determines how far down the top of the header will be from the top of the page, and the number in the Footer box determines how far the bottom of the footer will be up from the bottom of the page.

    The Margins tab of the same dialog has boxes for the Top and Bottom margin.

    The number in the Top box determines how far down the top of the body text will be from the top of the page. However, if the header takes up a lot of vertical space, the body text will be pushed down as far as needed to display the header. So think of the Top margin as the minimum distance between the top of the page to the top of the body text.

    The number in the Bottom box determines how far up the bottpm of the body text will be from the bottom of the page. However, if the footer takes up a lot of vertical space, the body text will be pushed up as far as needed to display the footer. So think of the Bottom margin as the minimum distance between the bottom of the page to the bottom of the body text.

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  1. Suzanne S Barnhill 277.2K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2013-08-13T12:50:59+00:00

    Specifically, note 1.

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-08-13T13:23:05+00:00

    Hi Suzanne,

    Excellent.  Read the Note 1 - can you confirm/clarify this sentence (I have noted where I think it needs changing):

    "Similarly, the footer margin determines the bottom of the first [last?] line of the footer, with additional lines extending upward toward or into the document body."

    Or is yours correct?

    Thanks,

    Albert

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  2. Stefan Blom 339.3K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2013-08-13T08:56:28+00:00
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  3. Anonymous
    2013-08-12T19:39:13+00:00

    Hi Hans,

    That helps.  Sort of what I was starting to figure out by playing with them and it helps to have it confirmed.

    Albert

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