Word Footer alignment becomes distorted on page 2 and beyond

[JCarr22]

I have a header and footer set up as our company letterhead. When the doc
becomes longer than 1 page the footer alignment becomes distorted on pages 2
and beyond. Any suggestions?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

See http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/Letterhead.htm for an explanation of
the correct way to set up letterhead for multiple-page letters.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

 

[Stefan Blom]

It seems as if you have the "Different first page" option checked (in Page
Setup), which means that there actually is a different footer (and header)
for the second and subsequent pages. You can fix the formatting of that
footer without affecting the first page footer.

If you want more specific suggestions, try to explain how the footer is
"distorted."

 

[JCarr22]

This is actually a one page doc, however, it overflows into 2 or more pages
depending on how much text the user adds to it...I checked to see if the
'diff first page' option was ckd and it is not. The footer alignment becomes
jumbled up when a 2nd page is forced. The 1st page footer is spaced from the
left to the rt margins and with about 4 lines of text. When it becomes
distorted the text is no longer spaced evenly and also has blank lines
between the text lines. Since page 2 does not exist unless page 1 becomes
too long, I do not know how to 'fix' page 2. Thanks!

 

[Stefan Blom]

Do the following to determine if there are more than one footer in the
document: Temporarily insert a page break so that you can see the second
page. If you place the insertion point in the footer of the second page,
does Word then show "Footer -Section 2-" or something similar on the dotted
line that separates the footer from the main body of the document?

 

[JCarr22]

I think that I have done what you suggested...I placed a page break in the 1
page doc...thus forcing the 2nd page. The footer on the 2nd page then shows
-- 'footer -section 2'. That is the footer that has its alignment all
jumbled up. Any thoughts from here? Thanks!

 

[JCarr22]

I think that I have done what you suggested...I placed a page break in the 1
page doc...thus forcing the 2nd page. The footer on the 2nd page then shows
-- 'footer -section 2'. That is the footer that has its alignment all
jumbled up. --- I thought it might have to do with margins on the 1st page footer vs any following page footer margins...however, I tried changing the 1st page margin to apply to "whole doc", and apply to "this point forward", but the distortion still happens when a page 2 is forced. I have noticed that the margin are different on the first footer vs the 2nd. Any thoughts from here? Thanks!

 

[Stefan Blom]

This is not about margins; it's about the footer contents. It might be that
the footer has a negative indent applied, so that text runs into the margin.
After you have fixed the formatting, just delete the temporary page break.

If you don't see how to fix the section 2 footer, link it back to the
corresponding footer of the previous section: Click the Same as Previous (or
Link to Previous) button on the Header and Footer toolbar (Word 97-2003). If
you are using Word 2007, click Link to Previous on the Header & Footer Tools
Design tab. When you are done, delete the temporary page break.

 

[JCarr22]

Could this be a margin issue? I noticed that the page 1 footer has different
margin settings than any subsequent footers. As I said, this is a 1 page
doc, but often it is lengtened to force 2 or more pages (footers). I changed
the page 1 footer to apply margins to "whole doc" and "this point forward"
but the page 2 footer still was created with different margins.

 

[Stefan Blom]

To clarify: linking the footers means that they will have the same contents,
not only the same formatting.

 

[Stefan Blom]

Not if the "margin" problem is with the footer only. I'm guessing
indentation is the problem (see my other reply).

 

[JCarr22]

Thanks for all the help...I was probably not real clear in the description,
but ended up getting the problem fixed by using a page insert to adjust the
footer margins on tthe 2nd page footer...saving the doc...then opening the
doc back up and deleting the page insert and saving it again as a 1 page doc.
Now when a page 2 is forced it uses the new margin settings for the footer

 

[Stefan Blom]

Clarification:

I'm referring to left and right margins here, which the footer (and header)
share with the page (or actually with the section).

Footers do have a bottom margin and headers have a top margin, as determined
by the "From edge" option in the Page Setup dialog box.

 

[Stefan Blom]

It's not clear which settings you actually changed, but I'm glad that you
got it sorted.