Excel Basics:
Setup Header/Footer

Step-by-Step: Setup Header & Footer

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What you will learn:

to create a header or footer for printing to create a custom header  to print from toolbar

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Start with: (a blank workbook)

Setup Header

1. If necessary, open the page Setup dialog . [File | Page Setup...]
    
2. Click on the Header/Footer tab.

   The dialog shows separate text boxes for header and footer. Each one has a drop list of suggestions.
   
   

3. Open the drop list on the Header text box and scroll it to see the pre-defined headers. Your list will look somewhat different from the illustration.

   The choices include things like page and sheet numbers, file name, and date. Other suggestions include the name of the person and company or school to which the software is licensed. Those are set when the software is installed. The person's name for this document can be changed in File | Properties | Summary | Author.
    
   

4. Select several of the choices in the drop list to see how they will display. Include one that has three parts, divided by commas. The Header box shows how your choice will print on the page - left, center, right.
   
    
5. Click the Custom Header… button. A dialog box opens with 3 sections. This is more awkward than the way Word handles headers. Here 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.
    

   

   When none of the pre-defined headers suit you, you can type in any text you want in any section. The buttons help with the information people often want to include.

   Same as in Word:	New to Excel
   Page number    Total number of pages     Date     Time	Font File name Sheet name Excel 2002/2003 adds: Path and Filename Insert picture Format picture

   The 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 and you cannot use a Font Color in your header or footer. Disappointing!

    The check box Normal font will return the header to the default workbook font, usually Arial 10 pts. You can set this Normal font in Tools | Options | General | Standard font.

     You can't insert a graphic in an Excel97/2000 header or footer.
          You CAN insert a (small) graphic in the header or footer in Excel 2002/2003.
                   Use the Insert picture button.
                   Use the Format picture button to get a dialog to change the size etc. of the picture.
    

6. Use the buttons to create your own Custom Header with the following sections:

   Left = Your name, two spaces, the date

   Center = File name, space, hyphen, space, Sheet name

   Right =  Excel Project 2 

   
   
   
   Header in 3 sections

   Use this style of header on each sheet for your projects and exercises. Change the right section as is appropriate for later projects and for exercises.
    

7. Click on OK to close the Header dialog.

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Print

1. Click on the Print Preview button. Since you have not entered anything in the worksheet yet, an error message appears.
    
2. Click on OK to close the error message.
    
3. Select cell A1 and press the spacebar once and then press ENTER. This will put a blank space into the cell. Excel considers this as "something to print."
    
4. Click on the Save button on the Standard toolbar. Since this is a new file, the Save As dialog appears.
    
5. Save your file to your Class disk in the excel project2 folder you created earlier, with the name myheader.xls.
   How to handle a full disk

   

6. Open Print Preview again. You should see a blank document with your custom header showing.
    
7. Print by clicking the Print button. You will learn more about controlling your printing later. The button works fine for this little job.