Summary

Headers, footers, and page numbers take about thirty seconds to add and considerably longer to control once a document has more than one part to it. This article covers both: the fast insert, and the section and Link to Previous rules that decide where your changes actually land.

In this guide

• 1. Add a Header or a Footer
• 2. Insert Page Numbers
• 3. Leave the Title Page Unnumbered with Different First Page
• 4. Start Numbering at a Specific Number
• 5. Show "Page X of Y"
• 6. Understand Link to Previous
• 7. Give Each Section Its Own Header or Footer

Before You Start

• Microsoft Word on Windows, Mac, or the web. Word for the web supports headers, footers, and page numbers, but not Different Odd & Even Pages.
• Edit access to the document. Click Enable Editing if a Read-Only banner appears at the top.
• No admin rights required.

Instructions

1. Add a Header or a Footer

The header is the strip inside the top margin; the footer is the strip inside the bottom margin. Whatever you type there repeats on every page of the section.

1. Click the Insert tab.
2. In the Header & Footer group, click Header or Footer. A gallery of built-in designs drops down — Blank, Blank (Three Columns), Austin, and others.
3. Click Blank for a plain starting point. The gallery closes, the cursor moves into the header area, and the body text dims.
4. Type your text over the placeholder. Format it with the Home tab exactly as you would body text.
5. Click Close Header and Footer at the far right of the ribbon, or press Esc. The body text brightens again and the header greys out.

Tip: Double-clicking anywhere in the top or bottom margin opens the same area without touching the ribbon. Double-clicking back in the body text closes it.

Note: While you are editing the header, the ribbon gains a tab called Header & Footer in Microsoft 365 and Word 2021. In Word 2019 and Word 2016 the same tab is called Design and sits under the Header & Footer Tools banner. The buttons on it are identical.

2. Insert Page Numbers

Word numbers pages automatically. Never type the numbers yourself — they will not renumber when you add or remove a page.

1. Click the Insert tab, then click Page Number in the Header & Footer group.
2. Choose a position from the menu:
   • Top of Page — puts the number in the header.
   • Bottom of Page — puts the number in the footer. This is the usual choice.
   • Page Margins — puts the number in the left or right margin, alongside the text.
   • Current Position — inserts the number wherever the cursor already sits, which is what you want when you are building a footer by hand.
3. Pick an alignment from the gallery that appears. Plain Number 1 is left, Plain Number 2 is centred, Plain Number 3 is right. The styled entries below add a bar, a circle, or a shape.
4. Numbers appear on every page and the cursor lands in the header or footer area.
5. Click Close Header and Footer to return to the body.

Verification: Scroll to page 3. The footer reads 3. Add a paragraph to page 1 that pushes text over, and the numbers renumber on their own.

To remove them again, click Insert > Page Number > Remove Page Numbers.

3. Leave the Title Page Unnumbered with Different First Page

Cover pages carry no number in almost every style guide. Word has one checkbox for this.

1. Double-click the footer on any page to open the header and footer area.
2. Click the Header & Footer tab (Design in Word 2019 and 2016).
3. In the Options group, select the Different First Page checkbox.
4. The number vanishes from page 1 and the boundary label above it changes to First Page Footer. Every other page keeps its number.
5. Click Close Header and Footer.

Note: Different First Page applies to the current section, not the whole document. In a document with several sections, each one has its own first page and its own checkbox.

Tip: The neighbouring Different Odd & Even Pages checkbox does the same job for booklet-style layouts, letting you push numbers to the outer edge on both sides of a spread.

4. Start Numbering at a Specific Number

Page 1 does not have to be the first sheet of paper. This is how you handle a cover page, a submitted chapter, or a document that continues from another one.

1. Click anywhere in the section you want to renumber.
2. Click Insert > Page Number > Format Page Numbers. The Page Number Format dialog opens.
3. Set Number format if you want something other than 1, 2, 3 — the dropdown also offers i, ii, iii for front matter and a, b, c.
4. Under Page numbering at the bottom, select Start at and type the value you want in the box.
5. Click OK.

Two values solve most real problems:

• Start at 0 — combined with Different First Page, the cover page becomes page 0 with no number shown, and the following page displays 1.
• Start at 1 in a later section — restarts counting where a new chapter begins. This requires a section break, covered in Step 7.

Verification: Check the second page. It reads 1 rather than 2, and the status bar at the bottom-left still reports the true position, for example Page 2 of 12.

5. Show "Page X of Y"

The total page count is a separate field from the current page number. Combine the two by hand.

1. Double-click the footer to open it, and delete anything already there.
2. Type Page including the trailing space.
3. Click Insert > Page Number > Current Position > Plain Number. The current page number appears at the cursor.
4. Type of with a space either side.
5. Click Insert > Quick Parts > Field. The Field dialog opens.
6. Select NumPages from the Field names list on the left, then click OK. The total page count appears.
7. Click Close Header and Footer. The footer now reads Page 4 of 12.

Tip: The Page Number > Bottom of Page gallery includes ready-made Bold Numbers entries that already read Page X of Y. Scroll down the gallery before building it manually — the field construction above is the version-proof fallback.

6. Understand Link to Previous

This one button causes more header trouble than everything else combined, so it is worth thirty seconds of explanation.

A header does not belong to a page. It belongs to a section. A brand-new document is a single section, so one header covers all of it — which is exactly what you want until it is not.

When you add a section break, Word creates a second header area but switches Link to Previous on for it. Linked means identical: the second section's header is a mirror of the first. Edit either one and both change. That is why typing a new chapter title into page 30's header rewrites page 1's header too.

1. Double-click the header in the section you want to make different.
2. Look at the right-hand edge of the header boundary. A small label reads Same as Previous. That label is the warning sign.
3. On the Header & Footer tab, find Link to Previous in the Navigation group. It is highlighted, meaning it is on.
4. Click Link to Previous once to turn it off. The Same as Previous label disappears.
5. Edit the header. The change now stays in this section only.

Note: Headers and footers link separately. Turning off Link to Previous while the cursor is in the header does nothing for the footer — click into the footer and turn it off there as well. The same applies to odd and even pages when Different Odd & Even Pages is on.

Tip: The Previous and Next buttons beside Link to Previous jump the cursor between header areas, which is the fastest way to audit a long document and see which sections are still linked.

Note: Watermarks are stored in the header layer too, which is why a DRAFT stamp can cover half a document and stop dead at a section break, and why it survives every attempt to select and delete it from the page. How to Add a Watermark in Word covers both.

7. Give Each Section Its Own Header or Footer

Bring the last three steps together: a report where the front matter uses roman numerals and each chapter carries its own title in the header.

1. Click at the very start of the page that begins the new part of the document.
2. Click the Layout tab, then click Breaks.
3. Under Section Breaks, click Next Page. Word starts a new section on a new page.
4. Double-click the header on that new page. The boundary now reads Header -Section 2- on the left and Same as Previous on the right.
5. Click Link to Previous in the Navigation group to turn it off. The Same as Previous label disappears.
6. Type the header text for this section. Section 1 keeps its own text.
7. Click into the footer of the same section and turn Link to Previous off there too.
8. Click Insert > Page Number > Format Page Numbers, select Start at, enter 1, and click OK. Numbering restarts at this section.
9. Click Close Header and Footer.

Verification: Turn on formatting marks with Ctrl + Shift + 8 and scroll to the join. A double dotted line reads Section Break (Next Page). The pages above and below it now show different headers.

Note: Section breaks are also a common cause of unwanted blank pages. If one appears after this step, see How to Delete a Blank Page in Word — deleting the break outright would undo the header work you have done here.

Tip: The same section break lets one part of the document carry different margins, a different paper size, or landscape orientation. How to Change Margins and Page Orientation in Word covers the Apply to options that make that work.

Troubleshooting

TIP

Before changing any header, look at the right-hand edge of its boundary line. If it reads Same as Previous, your edit will travel backwards into the section before it. Turn Link to Previous off first, and remember to do it for the footer separately.

Symptom / Error	Potential Cause	Solution
Editing one header changed every other header	Link to Previous is still on	Turn off Link to Previous in the section you are editing, then retype the text (Step 6).
Title page still shows a number	Different First Page not selected	Double-click the footer and select Different First Page in the Options group (Step 3).
Second page reads 2 instead of 1	Cover page is still being counted	Click Page Number > Format Page Numbers, select Start at, and enter 0 (Step 4).
Numbering restarts in the middle for no reason	A section break with Start at set	Click in that section, open Format Page Numbers, and select Continue from previous section.
Header text looks faded and will not select	You are in the body, not the header	Double-click inside the top margin. The body text dims and the header becomes editable.
Page numbers do not update after edits	Fields displayed from cache	Press Ctrl + A to select all, then press F9 to refresh every field in the document.
Header area is missing entirely	Document is in a non-layout view	Click the View tab and select Print Layout. Headers and footers are hidden in Web Layout and Draft.

Related Articles

• How to Add a Watermark in Word
• How to Delete a Blank Page in Word
• How to Use Heading Styles and Create a Table of Contents in Word
• How to Fix Microsoft Word Formatting Instantly (Without Re-typing)
• How to Convert a Word Document to PDF (and Back)
• How to Save or Print Any Document as a PDF
• How to Track Changes in Word
• How to Change Margins and Page Orientation in Word
• How to Change Line Spacing in Word

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