Information that you want to see on every printed page can go in the header at the top or in the footer at the bottom. Spreadsheets often need several paper pages to print. It is important to put the right information in the header or footer so you can tell which pages go together and in what order.
Header and footer text fits
inside the top and bottom margins.
Both the header and footer have 3 sections: Left, Center, Right. The Page Layout view puts its "Click to add..." comment in the center area. You must create and format these three areas separately.
Separate
Header/Footer for each Sheet: You must actively set the header and footer for each sheet. Excel will then put the header and footer on each piece of paper that it takes to print that sheet. If you wish to use the same header/footer for several sheets,
you can select all the sheets first and then create the header/footer. Just
don't forget to unselect the sheets when you are done or all your keystrokes
will apply to every selected sheet. You can overwrite a lot of data this
way!!!
There are two approaches to creating a header or a footer for your print-outs.
The Page Layout view lets you type on a 'page'.
The Page Setup dialog has a Header/Footer tab where you can pick one of the predesigned choices or create your own custom header or footer.
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Step-by-Step: Setup Header & Footer |
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What you will learn: |
to create a header or footer in Page Layout view that Undo does not track changes to the header or footer that text does not wrap in a header or footer to create a header or footer with the Page Setup dialog to create a custom header or footer to print |
Start with: ,
No
wrapping: The sections of the header do not wrap
automatically. If what you type is too long, it will print on top of the text in
the next header section. Let's prove it!
Tip: The preview in the Header dialog that shows your custom text on a page that is smaller than the normal paper page. So if everything fits in the preview, you should be clear of overlaps on the real page, too.
The same methods work for both a header and a footer. Let's looks at the dialog that lets you create those. There are some pre-designed headers and footers but you can also create a custom one.
The dialog shows separate text boxes and previews for the header and footer.
Your current header shows in the Header preview. In the Header
text box there is a comma between
the text for each section. The arrow at the end of the box opens a drop list of
commonly used headers.
Your list will look different from the illustration since your author name, file name, and path will be different.
It is hard to see but a comma separates the text for each section. Unhappily, you cannot tell from this list which sections are used when there are only one or two parts.
The author's name is the name on the account currently in use. So if you are using someone else's computer, the default author is not your own name.
The author's name for this document can be changed in File > Prepare > Properties or
File > Info.
Experiment: Pre-designed Footers
Click the Custom
Footer… button.
A dialog box opens with 3 sections. You must enter and format
each section separately.
The Left section is Aligned Left. The Center section is Centered. The Right section is Aligned Right. You cannot change these alignments.
This dialog is similar to the one in Word, but Excel has more buttons to enter data that will be updated automatically.
You can also type plain text in any section. It's very flexible.
Experiment: Custom Footer
Font button - Opens the Font dialog. You must format each section separately. You can format just part of a section's text, if you wish.
You do not have quite all of the choices here that the Font dialog has in Word. Some of the Effects are missing.
The check box Normal font will return the header to the default workbook
Body font. For a workbook created from the default Blank
workbook template, this is Calibri 11 pts.
Insert Picture button - Opens the Insert
Picture dialog for you to browse for an image.
If your
image is bigger than the space for the footer (or header), it
will still show but your document will land on top of it. That
may or may not be a problem. You can have only one picture in
a section at a time. A company logo is a common choice.
Format Picture button - Available only after
you insert a picture. Opens dialog to change the size etc. of the
picture.
Left = the Date, a space, and the Time.
Center = a picture (your choice).
The resource files for these lesson contains several images if you do not have one of your own. Format the picture with Locked Aspect Ratio and set the to Height =
1.5",
which is taller than the height of the margin. What will happen?
Right = Type Page and a space, insert page number, type of and a space, insert Total number of pages, type a space and Pages.
Page Numbers: Do you have "Page # of 0 Pages" in the footer? What's with that? Apparently Excel has not yet figured how many pages there are in the document. That's all right. You haven't entered any data in the worksheet yet! That's why the total number of pages is zero.
Picture Size: The picture is too tall to fit in the Footer area. It lies under the grid area. This one is easy to forget! At least it did not get chopped off. To guarantee that the picture won't run into the data, size it to the height of the Footer alone. Or be sure you won't have data in the cells the image in under.
You will be using this style of header on each sheet for your projects and exercises
in these lessons.
You will not usually need footer text for the projects and
exercises.
Open
Print Preview.
Since you have not entered anything in the worksheet yet, an error message appears.
Apparently the lovely header and footer do not count!
Open Print Preview again.
It works! Apparently a space is
"something to print".
The image in your footer may be different, of course.