A header is an area at the top of a page which can contain information which is repeated on every page of a document; a footer serves the same purpose at the bottom of each page. It is fairly common to have a null header/footer on the first page of a document because they are likely to repeat headings within the text. To insert a header or footer select View/Header And Footer. Headers and footers have three parts, left, centre and right, which you move to with the Tab key. If you want one item in the centre of the header press the Tab key once and enter your header information. If you want an item on the right press Tab twice and enter the information.
The Header/Footer toolbar has a number of icons for inserting common elements: page number, date, time and page setup are the most useful. Three buttons on the right of the toolbar are for navigation, the first switches between header and footer and the others jump between pages. Clicking the page setup button takes you to the Page Setup dialogue box where there is a section on headers and footers. Click the checkboxes here if you want different headers and footers on the first page or different odd and even pages - you may, for example, want your name on the left of a left page and on the right of a right page. Leave the first page header and footer blank if you find they are unnecessary.
A text style is a collection of formatting characteristics which has a name and which you can apply by selecting it. The format you want may have 6 or 7 settings such as font, size, bold, line spacing, colour, border and shading and it is quicker to apply this to text by one step than 6 or 7 steps each time you want to use it. It is also more consistent if you have 2 or 3 styles in a document which you apply to each situation. Word has its own styles which you can modify or you can create your own. To modify a style select Format/Style and use the Modify and Format buttons which open up exactly the same dialogues as Format/Character and Format/Paragraph.
Once a style has been created you can give it a name such as ‘speech’ or ‘directions’. Place the cursor in the paragraph on which you want to base your style, having first formatted it in the way you want. Select Format/Style and click the New button in the dialogue box. Give the style a name and click OK and Apply. To set other paragraphs to this style move the cursor anywhere within them and choose the style name from the drop down box on the left of the Formatting toolbar.
Let us say that a document has 4 distinct styles, for example a play script might have dialogue, stage instructions and headings for acts and scenes. The dialogue will use a hanging indent with the character’s name beginning on the left and the dialogue indented below:
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Lady Chiltern : |
We were at school together, Mrs. Cheveley. |
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Mrs. Cheveley (superciliously) : |
Indeed? I have forgotten all about my schooldays. I have a vague impression that they were detestable.
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This layout was achieved by selecting the text and creating a hanging indent with the ruler markers, placing the lower one at 2 inches and the upper one at zero.
A hanging indent was created with the ruler markers, placing the lower one at 2 inches and the upper one at zero; the Tab key is pressed after each character name to move to the 2 inch marker. Stage instructions might be indented and italic, Act headings in 18 point bold and centred, Scene headings in 14 point, etc. To apply a style click in a paragraph and select the one required from the list box.
Another use of styles is to set heading styles in a document such as a project or report which has multiple levels of organisation - sections, sub-sections, sub-sub-sections, and so on. The style box includes three heading definitions which you can change with Format/Style to suit your taste. Instead of formatting heading text with font, size, bold, centre, etc. you simply choose the level of heading you require from the style box and all the formatting is done for you.
When you have used headings from the style box you can generate a table of contents at the beginning of your document which lists the headings and their page numbers. To do this move the cursor to the point where you want your table of contents to appear, select Insert/Index and Tables and then choose the Table of Contents tab. You will see that you can also insert a table of figures and other lists which may be appropriate for a GCSE or A Level project.
Write the outline of a project which will contain a collection of poems in a number of sections such as 'Nature Poems', 'Love Poems', etc. Write titles for each poem as either the real title of the poem or as 'Love Poem number 2 goes here', etc. Set text styles for the section headings and the poem titles and format the styles as you wish. Add a new page at the beginning of the document (use Ctrl/Enter on the first line) and add headings and a table of contents. Add suitable headers and footers.