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Toward a Better Computing Experience |
Nancy DeMarte, Columnist, Office Talk, Sarasota PCUG, Inc., FL October issue, Sarasota PC Monitor www.spcug.org ndemarte (at) Verizon.net |
We have all seen a document with a footer. It’s that text in the bottom margin area of each page in a book or article which contains the page number, title, or other information. But how many of us add footers to the documents we create? Microsoft Word 2003 and 2007 allow easy insertion of footers and offer many options for footer content and formatting. Knowing what these options are and how to add them to a document will give you one more way to enhance your documents.
A surprising variety of items can be included in a footer:
• Date and time– either the date the document was created or the date/time it
was last opened
• Page numbers – a number aligned left, right, or center; or variations, such as
"page X of Y"
• Document properties – title, author, subject, company or organization, etc. •
Graphics – a line, logo, shape, clip art, or photo; color or grayscale • File
properties– number of words, file size in bytes, etc.
• Hyperlink – link to a web page or a folder on your computer
•Special Variations – different footers on odd and even pages, etc.
The procedure for inserting a footer in Word 2007 is straightforward. Open the document and click the Insert tab – Footer. This reveals a list of 25 preformatted footer templates from which to choose, from a blank footer to ones that complement the Word 2007 themes. It also opens the header and footer Design tab, which has specific commands related to just to headers and footers. Click one of the footer templates to make it appear in the footer area. Then add the information you want by typing in the preset areas. For instance, if you insert a blank three tab footer, you might enter the topic at the left tab, the date at the center tab, and your name at the right tab. When finished, double click in the body of the document to deselect the footer. To return to the footer, double click in the footer area.
At times you may wish to create your own footer to add specialized information. Let’s say I want to add the document’s file name and path so I can locate it easily on my computer. To do this, I need to add a "field," a set of instructions (code) for adding text or graphics, much like a formula in Excel. Fortunately, Word 2007 has many preset fields available to perform all sorts of functions. First I insert a blank footer, as described above. I ignore the "Type text" area. On the header and footer Design tab, I click Quick Parts – Field. A list appears containing many fields. I scroll down to FileName and click it. I choose the "lower case" format option and check the box next to "Add path to FileName." When I click OK, the file path appears in the footer, looking like this: c:\users\nancy\documents \spcug\ myarticles enhancedocumentswithfooters.doc. Customized footers can be saved in the Building Blocks gallery in Quick Parts for easy access.
Word 2003 lacks the large number of footer templates of Word 2007, but lets you to add common footers easily and modify them to your needs, including adding fields. To insert a footer, open the View menu and click Header and Footer. This will show the header area outlined in your document. To switch to the footer area, click the "Switch between header and footer" icon in the header and footer toolbar. This mini toolbar contains several icons for common footer content, such as date and page number. It also has an "Insert Auto Text" menu that reveals a list of 10 other useful footer options, such as "author, page#, and date," which adds all three features at once. Another option is "filename and path." Click this to put the file name and path in your footer. To add a field in Word 2003, open the Insert menu and choose Field. You will see a list similar to that in Word 2007. First choose a Category; then click the Field Name you want. In Word 2003, fields can be edited by right clicking inside the footer area and choosing Edit Field. You can modify the field itself or change the font, font size, or other text features, just as you would in the body text. Remember to select the footer text before editing.
Once you learn to add footer text, you will want to experiment with adding graphics, such as a top border line or even a logo, photo or clip art. Footers are a great way to preserve important information about a document while giving it professional flair.