OpenOffice.org is a free, open source productivity suite of applications that include a word processor, spreadsheet application and presentation application. Writer is the word processing application of OpenOffice and is comparable to Microsoft Word.
Both Writer and Word can insert headers and footers into documents. While the steps involved are a bit different between Writer and Word, each application can produce documents with headers and footers.
What are Headers and Footers?
Headers are portions of the document that appear at the top of the page. Footers appear at the bottom of the page. Both are useful to create consistency within a document. The same text can appear at the top or bottom of every page.
Insert a Header or Footer into a Document
To insert a header and/or a footer into a Writer document, select Insert > Header or Insert > Footer from the main menu. This is a bit different from the steps in Microsoft Word which include selecting View > Header and Footer from the main menu. With Writer, the header and footer is selected separately.
Within Writer an area will appear at the top (if Header was selected) or bottom (if footer was selected) of the page. This area is the place where the header and/or footer will be positioned within the document and any text entered here will appear at the top or bottom of every page.
Working with Fields
Once created, working with a header and/or footer is a bit different between Writer and Word. There is no Header and Footer toolbar in Writer as there is in Word. With Word's Header and Footer toolbar, auto text, such as page number, author, file name and path can be inserted into the header and/or footer. In Writer, auto text, called fields, can be added into a header and/or footer. Since there is no Header and Footer toolbar in Writer, the fields are accessed through the main menu under the Insert menu.
When selecting Insert > Fields in Writer the following choices display:
- Date
- Time
- Page Number
- Page Count
- Subject
- Title
- Author
- Other
Inserted fields are indicated by a shaded gray background. The gray background can be turned off/on by selecting Field Shadings from the View menu or keyboard shortcut Ctrl + F8.
Page Setup
Setting up page margins and the margins of headers and footers is accessed through either File > Page Setup or the Header and Footer toolbar in Word. These controls are instead found under Format > Page in Writer. The Page Style Default dialog box appears when selecting When selecting Format > Page in Writer. There are several tabs that control the page set up and layout. Header and footer controls are found within their respective tabs.
Headers and footers provide consistency with documents. The same text can display at the top or bottom of every page. Time-saving auto text, fields, can be inserted to provide text that automatically changes. Though the steps vary between Writer and Word, both applications can display headers and footers.
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