Headers and Footers in Word: First Page and Sections

To add a header or footer in Word, go to Insert > Header or Insert > Footer and pick a layout, or double-click the top or bottom margin of any page. That part is easy. The trouble starts when some pages need to be different: no header on the cover, a different chapter title on each chapter, page numbers that restart after the table of contents. Headers belong to sections, not pages, so deleting a header on one page removes it from every page in that section. Once you work with sections instead of against them, each of those layouts takes a few minutes.

How to Add a Header or Footer in Word

Use the gallery

Insert > Header opens a gallery of built-in layouts such as Blank and Blank (Three Columns). Pick one and Word inserts placeholder text and opens the Header & Footer tab. The bottom of the menu has Edit Header and Remove Header.

Footers work the same way from Insert > Footer, with Edit Footer and Remove Footer at the bottom of the list.

Edit directly

1. Double-click the top margin of a page. The body text dims and the header becomes editable.
2. Type the document number on the left, press Tab to jump to the center, and Tab again for the right edge. The built-in Header style already has center and right tab stops, so a "Doc No. / Title / Revision" layout lines up without spaces.
3. Insert a logo with Insert > Pictures and size it to fit the header height.
4. Double-click the body, press Esc, or select Close Header and Footer to finish.

Headers and footers only appear in Print Layout. In Draft or Web Layout they are not shown, so if a header seems to have vanished, check the view first.

Show Page X of Y and document details

Insert > Page Number > Current Position includes "Page X of Y" layouts. You can also build it yourself: type "Page ", insert a page number, type " of ", then Insert > Quick Parts > Field > NumPages. In a document where each chapter restarts numbering, use the SectionPages field to count only the pages in that chapter. Fields such as FileName and Title keep the header current when the file is renamed or its properties change.

Remove the Header from the First Page

Microsoft's instructions use Different First Page. Deleting the text on the cover page would delete it everywhere in that section, so you tell Word to give the first page its own header instead.

1. Double-click the header or footer area.
2. On the Header & Footer tab, select Different First Page.
3. The first page's header and footer are cleared. Type something else there if the cover needs it.
4. Press Esc.

Two details catch people out. Different First Page is a toggle, so selecting it when it is already on turns it off. And it applies per section: if every chapter is a section, turning it on in each one blanks the first page of every chapter. Turn it on only in the section that contains the cover. The same option is in the Page Setup dialog on the Layout tab, where Apply to lets you choose this section or the whole document.

To hide the number on the cover and make the second page "1", turn on Different First Page, then open Format Page Numbers and set Start at to 0. Microsoft's page numbering guide gives the same tip.

Different Headers for Different Sections

Insert section breaks

To change the header partway through, start a new section where the change begins: Layout > Breaks > Next Page. A page break (Ctrl+Enter) only moves text to a new page; it does not create a section, so the header stays shared. Microsoft's single-page header guide makes the same point: if a page break already sits there, remove it and use a section break instead.

To see where section breaks are, switch to View > Draft, where each break shows as a labeled dotted line, or turn on Show/Hide ¶ in Print Layout.

Turn off Link to Previous

A new section's header starts linked to the one before it, so editing it changes both. Double-click the new section's header and select Link to Previous on the Header & Footer tab to turn it off. Footers are linked separately, so move to the footer and turn it off there too. A document with five sections needs four header unlinks and four footer unlinks.

Restart page numbers

Insert numbers from Insert > Page Number, then use Format Page Numbers in the same menu. Start at sets the first number in the current section; Continue from previous section keeps the count going. A common pattern is roman numerals (i, ii) for the front matter and 1 for the first chapter.

👉 How to Make One Page Landscape in Word

When Headers Won't Delete or All Change Together

• Editing one section changed the others. Link to Previous is still on. Turn it off in both the header and the footer of that section.
• Remove Header left headers in later sections. Remove works on the section with the cursor. Repeat it per section, or relink the sections and remove it once from the first.
• The new starting number did not apply. The cursor was in a different section. Click in the footer of the section you want and set it again.
• The header overlaps the body. The header content is taller than the top margin. Increase the top margin or reduce Header from Top in the Position group of the Header & Footer tab.
• Deleting a section break changed the header. The break stores the settings of the section before it; delete it and that text takes on the next section's header and page setup. Undo, then decide which header to keep before merging.

For multi-line headers or logos, give the page more room with Layout > Margins > Custom Margins.

Worked Example: A Supplier Quality Manual

The quality team at Crestview Foods is revising its supplier quality manual. It has a cover page, a two-page table of contents, three chapters and a landscape appendix with inspection criteria. The house rule: document number QM-07 on the left of the header, the chapter title in the center, the revision on the right, and "Page X of Y" centered in the footer.

1. Map the structure. The Navigation pane shows where each chapter starts. The chapters were separated only by page breaks.

2. Create sections. Replace the page breaks before the TOC, each chapter and the appendix with Next Page section breaks. That makes six sections: cover, TOC, chapters 1–3 and appendix.
3. Blank the cover. Turn on Different First Page in the first section only.
4. Unlink. In sections 2 through 6, turn off Link to Previous in both the header and the footer, five of each.
5. Add chapter titles. Type each chapter title in the center of its section's header. Write QM-07 and the revision once in section 2, then copy them to the others.
6. Fix numbering. TOC section: roman numerals from i. Chapter 1: start at 1. Chapters 2 and 3: continue from the previous section. Total pages: the NumPages field.
7. Check the landscape appendix. The wider page left the right tab stop where it was for portrait, so the revision number sat near the middle. Move the tab stop to the new right margin.
8. Page through in Print Preview. No header on the cover, the right title on every chapter, no gaps in numbering. Then save as PDF.

The step people skip is the footer half of step 4. Unlink only the headers, and changing chapter 1's number format turns the TOC's roman numerals into 1, 2, 3. Unlink header and footer as a pair in every section.

Word for the Web and Mac Differences

On Windows, Microsoft 365, Word 2024, Word 2021 and Word 2019 share the same Header & Footer tab.

• Word for the web: go to Insert > Header & Footer and use Options > Different First Page at the top of the document. Multi-section layouts with unlinked headers are easier to build in the desktop app.
• Word for Mac: insert from the Insert tab and use Different First Page and Link to Previous on the Header & Footer tab, the same as on Windows.

FAQ

Q. How do I remove the header from only the first page?

Double-click the header and select Different First Page on the Header & Footer tab. The first page's header and footer are cleared; the rest stay.

Q. How do I start a different header on a later page?

Insert Layout > Breaks > Next Page before that page, then turn off Link to Previous in the new section's header and footer and edit them.

Q. Why does my header still show on other pages after I removed it?

Remove Header only affects the current section. Remove it in each section, or turn Link to Previous back on so all sections share one header and remove it once.

Q. Can the second page be page 1?

Yes. Turn on Different First Page, then set Start at to 0 in Format Page Numbers. The cover counts as page 0 and shows no number.

Headers and Footers with inline AI

Setting up sections, document numbers, revisions and chapter-by-chapter numbering across dozens of controlled documents is work inline AI takes on. inline AI edits each Word document directly, builds headers and footers to your house rules, and pulls the latest revision number from your revision log into the header.