NOTE: I’ve never had Office 2013, so I can’t say if there are any differences for that version, but I now have Office 2016 and the process is exactly the same, so it’s a good bet that it is for 2013 as well. (If you have Word 2013 and there is any difference, please post a comment below and I’ll add that info here.)
Both sets of instructions are for creating different sections in an MS-Word document so you can change the header for each section. For example, you might want to have different headers with each chapter name to help readers find the section they’re looking for more quickly.
Note: The same techniques work for creating separate footers, which you might want to do to start Page 1 after a Table of Contents, for example.
Section Break vs. Page Break
You may already know that you can force a page break by placing your cursor in front of the text you want to start on the next page and pressing Ctrl + Enter on your keyboard. (And if you don’t know that, consider this a bonus tip!) 🙂
However, that won’t work for our purpose. We don’t want to just move the text to the next page; we want to start a new section so we can create a new header.
Put your cursor at the start of the text you want to start a new section.
On the Page Layout ribbon, click the down arrow beside the Breaks button. (In Word 2016, the ribbon is just called Layout. I don’t know which one it is in 2013.)
Select Section Breaks > Next Page.
Now the text is at the top of the next page.
Move your cursor near the top of the page and double-click to display the Header area.
NOTE: Some readers have reported that if they create a Header section using the Insert > Header command and choose anything other than the Blank option, the instructions don’t work. I’m not sure why this is as it works for me, but if you are still having problems after following these steps, try changing the Header format to Blank.
The Header and Footer Tools Design ribbon has opened at the top of the page. You can see that the Link to Previous button is depressed, meaning the two sections will have the same header. (You can also see a Same to Previous tab on the bottom border of the header section.)
Click the Link to Previous button.
The Same as Previous tab is now gone from the header section.
Type “Section 2 Header” in the header area.
Double-click in the main text area of the page.
This will close the header section and remove the toolbar. The new header appears at the top of the page.
Now, if you scroll back up to the first page, you can see that the header is still blank, because the two headers are no longer linked. You could also enter text into the header area and it wouldn’t change the header on the next page.
Simply repeat these steps for each new section and you can have as many different headers as you want.
Note: The screenshots below show a document I used when I wrote the original post. I no longer have it and I no longer have Word 2003, so I can’t update the document. But the dialog boxes should look the same.
Put your cursor at the start of the text you want to start a new section.
From the Insert menu, select Break.
In the dialog box that comes up, select the “Next page” radio button from the “Section break types” area.
Now the text is at the top of the next page. You can tell it’s also the beginning of a new section by looking at the status line at the bottom left of the Word window.
From the View menu, click Header and Footer.
The header section of the page will display and the Header and Footer toolbar also appears.
You’ll notice, above the header box, it says “Same as previous.” This is the default option for when you create a header, and that’s what we need to change.
Click the Same as Previous button on the toolbar.
You can mouse over the buttons to see the names of them. You want to click it so it doesn’t look like it’s depressed.
The “Same as previous” text is now gone from the header box at the top of the page.
Type “Section 2 Header” in the header area.
Double-click in the main text area of the page.
This will close the header section and remove the toolbar.
Now, if you scroll back up to the first page, you can see the header is still blank, because the two headers are no longer linked.
Simply repeat these steps for each new section and you can have as many different headers as you want.
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View Comments
Hi! Thanks for the tips about making the header and footer different for MS 2007. It worked and I'm glad it did. Thank you :)
this does not work at all I have tried it and it wont work for me
What if you have 2010? How does it work with that. I have an assignment for school where I have to write two essays of different topics but are to be in the same document and have different titles in their headers. How do I do this? I'm ok with putting a single header into my document but I can't seem to figure out how to put a 2 and different one in?
I am having the same problem in Word 2007. I have followed the instructions about "link to previous," and it absolutely does not work. The document recognizes that there are multiple sections in the document, and it no longer says "same as previous" up near the dotted link along the header. If I click "link to previous" just for good measure, it asks me if I want to erase the header and link it to the one from the previous section. I click "no." Theoretically, that should mean that they are different, but it always produces the same text. As long as I am still editing the headers, it allows me to put different texts for each one, but once I click "close header/footer" and go back to the body of the document (or if I just try to save it while still in editing mode), it always reverts to whatever the last text is that I typed. If I edit the font of a particular header or even if I remove the header altogether from a certain section, it works fine. Each one is different. But once I try to have different words written in different headers, that is the part that does not work. Once I stop editing the headers, the words that appear always revert to the last header that I typed. It doesn't matter if it's from the first section, the last section, or one of the middle ones. Whatever is the last thing I type, all of the headers take that text.
I don't find a way to turn off "link to previous", only a way to turn it on. It's not a check box in my 2007 version.
In Word 2007 this procedure doesn't work. Do a simple Google search and you will see how many frustrated users agree. This is especially true if trying to take several seperate documents and turn them into one large document and retain the formatting from the seperate docs. An easy work-around I have used with success is to simply insert a text box in to the page(s) where you want the header/footer to be different, paste the header text into it and then move the box to the page header
Hi Mike.. Do exactly what is being meintioned above. Just go through the header. Right click it and remove the content control.. I hope this helps..
This does NOT work at all... I create a new document in Word 2007, insert header, tick "different first page", write what i want, then insert a section break new page.. I then get the same header from the first page come up on my second page... I want the same header style on the second page, just different writing... so, I change the writing in the header... I scroll back up to the first page and I find that it's changed the header to the second page's header! I have unticked 'link pages'... This is so frustrating! What am I doing wrong?
Hi Mike.
Thanks for your comment (and sorry for the delay in replying!). I'm not sure why it's not working if you're unchecking Link to Previous. That's where you need to do it to make sure it stays separate from the first section's header. If you're comfortable doing so, you could send me your Word doc to F1@TechForLuddites.com and I can look at it to see if I can see what the problem might be.
thank you....