I need an MS Word wizard!

[Redwolf]

Can someone give me some guidance on setting up footers in Word? The footers are messed up (i.e., the pagination is wrong) on a newsletter I'm editing, and I have no idea how to get the darned things to behave!

Redwolf

[Dale]

I tell you, pagination in Word is a nightmare. There is NO simple way to do it.

[carrie]

Can someone give me some guidance on setting up footers in Word?

What exactly is the problem? What are you trying to accomplish?

Carol

[Congratulations]

I tell you, pagination in Word is a nightmare. There is NO simple way to do it.

Sadly, this is largely the case. Personally, I find that gently stroking my monitor can help. Failing that, it is sometimes beneficial to sing a soothing tune before asking Word politely to do what you need.

I might be able to provide some more specific help if you could elucidate exactly what your situation is.

[Redwolf]

Can someone give me some guidance on setting up footers in Word?

What exactly is the problem? What are you trying to accomplish?

Carol

I had to add four pages to a newsletter. For some reason, the newsletter was originally designed in two-page files (so page 1-2 is one file, page 3-4 another file, and so on). I copied one of the files to make my new pages...but now, instead of automatically advancing the numbering, Word insists on making both pages of a file the same page number...if I change it on one, they both change, so the numbers on both pages are identical. All I really need is for Word to let me number these pages 7, 8, 9 and 10, respectively.

Redwolf

[Congratulations]

Can someone give me some guidance on setting up footers in Word?

What exactly is the problem? What are you trying to accomplish?

Carol

I had to add four pages to a newsletter. For some reason, the newsletter was originally designed in two-page files (so page 1-2 is one file, page 3-4 another file, and so on). I copied one of the files to make my new pages...but now, instead of automatically advancing the numbering, Word insists on making both pages of a file the same page number...if I change it on one, they both change, so the numbers on both pages are identical. All I really need is for Word to let me number these pages 7, 8, 9 and 10, respectively.

Redwolf

You probably typed the number directly into the footer? That would do that.

What you have to do is put the curser where you want the page number to be and go to Insert > page number. I believe there's also a "page number" button on the header/footer toolbar.

I believe that's how you do it. I don't have Word on this computer to look at, so I could be wrong. It may also depend on what version you're running. Someone else will chime in, I'm sure.

[carrie]

First of all, I would insert page breaks between the pages that were originally in one file.

Congrats is right. Here's how I do it: go to the View menu in Word, choose Header and Footer, and then in toolbar select the # choice. I usually type, in the footer, Page [blank] (but don't type [blank]). Instead, with your cursor in the blank space, select that #. That will automatically number your pages. If you don't want the page number preceded by "Page," obviously don't type that.

Carol

[Redwolf]

First of all, I would insert page breaks between the pages that were originally in one file.

Congrats is right. Here's how I do it: go to the View menu in Word, choose Header and Footer, and then in toolbar select the # choice. I usually type, in the footer, Page [blank] (but don't type [blank]). Instead, with your cursor in the blank space, select that #. That will automatically number your pages. If you don't want the page number preceded by "Page," obviously don't type that.

Carol

But what if I need the first page to be something other than 1? These are all in separate files (p. 1 & 2 in one file, p. 3 & 4 in another, etc). I'm not sure why they were set up that way...had I been designing it, I would have made it all one big file and inserted new pages when needed, but it's what I've inherited. Unfortunately, I don't work much in Word, with the exception of this one thing, so I spend an awful lot of time floundering around with the formatting.

Redwolf

[carrie]

From the help screen:

If your document is divided into sections, click in a section or select multiple sections you want to change. Click anywhere if your document is not divided into sections.
On the View menu, click Header and Footer.
On the Header and Footer toolbar, click Page Setup .
Click the Layout tab.
Select the Different first page check box, and then click OK.
If necessary, click Show Previous or Show Next on the Header and Footer toolbar to move into the First Page Header area or First Page Footer area.
Create the header or footer for the first page of the document or section.
If you don't want a header or footer on the first page, leave the header and footer areas blank.

To move to the header or footer for the rest of the document or section, click Show Next on the Header and Footer toolbar. Then create the header or footer you want.
Create different headers or footers for odd and even pages

On the View menu, click Header and Footer.
On the Header and Footer toolbar, click Page Setup .
Click the Layout tab.
Select the Different odd and even check box, and then click OK.
If necessary, click Show Previous or Show Next on the Header and Footer toolbar to move into the odd or even header or footer areas.
Create the header or footer for odd-numbered pages in the Odd Page Header or Odd Page Footer area and create the header or footer for even-numbered pages in the Even Page Header or Even Page Footer area.
Create a different header or footer for part of a document

A document must first be divided into sections in order to create a different header or footer for part of a document.

If you haven't done so already, insert a section break where you want to start a new section that contains a different header or footer.
How?

Click where you want to insert a section break.
On the Insert menu, click Break.
Under Section break types, click the option that describes where you want the new section to begin.
Click in the section for which you want to create a different header or footer.
On the View menu, click Header and Footer.
On the Header and Footer toolbar, click Same as Previous to break the connection between the header and footer in the current section and the previous section.
Microsoft Word no longer displays "Same as Previous" in the upper-right corner of the header or footer.

Change the existing header or footer, or create a new one for this section.

Carol

[Scott McCallister]

or... it really isn't a header/footer problem... it is a field update issue.

It really could be as simple as:
hit Ctrl+A to select all
press F9.

You will then have the option of updating the entire document and page numbers (particularly useful for docs with extensive tables of contents and tables of figures) or just updating page numbers as would be the case with your footers.

Good Luck!

[Redwolf]

This is the most pathetic program, I swear, that I've ever worked in. They're just simple pages...every one separated by a page break. Nothing even remotely fancy. Even combining them (which is not nearly as easy as it sounds) has me with the last two pages not corresponding in number to the previous 8.

Redwolf

[Redwolf]

Control A does indeed select all, but F9 doesn't do a thing...no options at all.

Should I be seeing some kind of menu?

Redwolf

[Innocent Bystander]

I couldn't find F9 in my version of Word, but a colleague tells me F9 is "update selected fields". In other words, it MIGHT update the page fields in headers & footers. He thinks it is meant for calculable fields in tables. But it is worth a try. You won't SEE it do anything.

But your problem sounds like something I've encountered, Redwolf.
I have a large document (70 pages) with headers & footers. I move it from machine to machine. Whether its the different OS (W98 & WXP) or whether its different versions of Word, I don't know, but it loses the page numbers in the footers every time. Previously I would retype the footer, and it would work. I'll try F9 and see.

[Flyingcursor]

What version of Word are you using?

Let me see if I understand the problem correctly.
You have multiple documents.
Doc 1 is numbered page 1 & 2
Doc 2 is numbered page 3 & 4
etc. etc.


You want to put them all together and have them number 1,2,3,4,....
But what is happening is that when you put them together they don't renumber correctly.

Does this mean you do your authoring in each part then when your finished you put them together or does it mean that each part is sort of a template that you put together then you do the authoring?

I have some questions about how you're putting the documents together, but ere's how I would do it.

Go into your first document. View | Headers and Footers.
Make sure your cursor is in the footer.
The page number has to be a field, not hand typed.
Delete any page numbers or page fields already there and start fresh.

Go to Insert | Page Number...
You will see a this box:



This lets you decide where to locate the page number.

Click the "Format..." button and you'll see this:



You're concerned with the bottom part.
If you select "Continue from previous section" then the numbering will be consecutive regardless of section breaks etc.
If you select "Start at", then you can tell Word which page number you want to start with.

Set it to "Continue from pervious section" and click OK until you're back to the document. Close the Header/Footer gizmo.

Keep this document open and put your cursor where you want the next document to start.
Open your second document.
In the second document type CTRL-A to select all. Type CTRL-C to copy.
Go back to the first document and type CTRL-V

Theoretically when you do this the footer information will not copy over. Instead Word will add new pages as necessary to paste the new stuff and automatically number the pages.

Of course you will probably have to do some reformatting since the paste operation is pretty stupid.

If that doesn't work then you can go into the naughty footers and repeat the process above for setting them to Continue from previous section.

Or, if you're really desparate I can PM you my number and we can walk through it.

Ultimately the best thing would be to create a Word template file, i.e. "newsletter.dot" that contains all the header and footer stuff so you never have to mess with it again. I mean, if someone gave you a task, they shouldn't care how you do it, as long as it gets done. I see no reason to keep these as separate documents if it is causing you headaches. The only reason would be if different people were working on different sections at the same time.