How to guard header and footer areas in Microsoft Word

Headings are an essential a part of many Microsoft Word paperwork. Once every thing is in place, you may defend the header in order that nobody can inadvertently spoil it, particularly should you collaborate with others in your group.

You can defend a doc, however there isn’t any setting that means that you can defend solely the header and footer whereas nonetheless permitting customers to edit the physique of the doc. Fortunately, you may defend the header and take away safety from the physique when needed, however the course of shouldn’t be intuitive.

SEE: 5 methods to delete a web page in Word (TechRepublic)

In this tutorial I’ll present you a three-step course of to guard the header or footer space with out defending the physique of your Word doc. I’ll be working within the header, however this system protects each the header and footer.

I take advantage of Microsoft 365 on a 64-bit Windows 10 system, however you should use older variations of Word. This article shouldn’t be acceptable for Word for the online. Unfortunately, this answer shouldn’t be appropriate for on-line collaboration, as a result of Word for the online won’t open a doc with safety enabled in any part. You can obtain the Microsoft Word demo file for this tutorial.

Step One: How to Insert a Page Break in Word

Once a doc is in good situation and you’ve got added header content material, you could need to forestall others from modifying that part. Doing so is simple, however there isn’t any fast repair. The first step is so as to add a web page break, as follows:

1. Press Ctrl + Home to maneuver the cursor to the primary place on the primary web page of the doc. The pause should be the very first thing within the doc.
2. Click Show/Hide within the Paragraph group on the Home tab. This step is not technically needed, however displaying the web page break image will make issues simpler.
3. Click the Layout tab.
4. In the Page Setup group, click on the Breaks drop-down menu and select Continuous.

As you may see within the picture above, the part break is the very first thing on the primary web page of the doc, as a result of the cursor was on the high of that web page after we inserted the break. The location of this break permits us to format the header otherwise than the physique of the doc.

If you are not accustomed to part breaks, they apply to the content material earlier than the break, and the one factor earlier than this break is the header space. The subsequent step will assist make clear why that is essential.

You could also be questioning how this answer also can apply to the footer if the break applies to the content material earlier than the break. Word means that you can insert totally different header and footer content material, however internally Word sees the header and footer as the identical space.

SEE: 6 finest free options to Microsoft Word (TechRepublic)

Step Two: How to Protect Your Document in Word

Our second step might sound slightly counterproductive, however it’ll all come collectively in the long run. Now we have to defend the whole doc, together with the header, footer, and physique.

To defend the whole doc, do the next:

1. Click the File tab, then Information within the left pane.
2. Click Protect Document and select Restrict Editing from the drop-down menu. Word will return to the doc and show the modifying choices within the Restrict Editing pane.
3. Select the second choice and select No Changes (Read Only) from the drop-down menu.

At this level you will have protected the whole doc: should you stopped now, nobody would have the ability to change something. That’s not what we wish. We have to unprotect the physique of the doc.

SEE: How to make use of part breaks to regulate formatting in Word (TechRepublic)

Step Three: How to Unprotect Document Body in Word

If you are not accustomed to Word safety, you could be questioning the place we’re headed as a result of defending every thing within the doc wasn’t what we meant after we began. We need to defend the doc header however nonetheless have the ability to edit the physique of the Word doc.

Here’s find out how to take away doc physique safety:

1. Select every thing within the doc besides the part header. To do that, place the cursor firstly of the primary line of the doc by urgent Ctrl + Home. Then, press Ctrl + Shift + End to pick out every thing besides the part break.
2. In the Restrict Editing pane, choose the All choice within the Exceptions part.
3. In part three, click on Yes, begin making use of safety.
4. When Word asks you for a password, as proven within the second picture under, enter “pw” twice and click on OK. When making use of it to your work, we advocate utilizing a safer password. For demonstration functions, we need to preserve every thing easy.

Look for the opening and shutting brackets firstly and finish of the unprotected space, respectively. As the creator, you’ll know the password of the Word doc so you may make modifications to the header and footer space. Others can edit the physique of the doc, however not the header and footer space.

This answer is not intuitive, and surprisingly, Word would not provide an choice to guard simply the header and footer. However, you may nonetheless do it utilizing this easy approach.

This article was initially revealed in September 2022. It was up to date by Antony Peyton in January 2025.