Headers are a fundamental part of many Microsoft Word documents. Once whatever’s in location, you can secure the header so no one can unintentionally mess it up, specifically if you’re collaborating with others in your company.
You can secure a file, however there’s no setting that lets you secure only the header and footer while continuing to permit users to edit the body of the document. Fortunately, you can safeguard the header and unprotect the body when needed, but the process isn’t intuitive.
SEE: 5 Ways to Erase a Page in Word (TechRepublic)
In this tutorial, I’ll reveal you a three-step procedure for safeguarding the header or footer location without protecting the body of the Word file. I’ll be operating in the header, however this method secures both the header and the footer.
I’m utilizing Microsoft 365 on a Windows 10 64-bit system, however you can utilize earlier variations of Word. This post isn’t proper for Word for the web. Sadly, this solution isn’t an excellent one for online cooperation, because Word for the web won’t open a file with enabled defense in any section. You can download the Microsoft Word demonstration filefor this tutorial.
Step one: How to place a page break in Word
As soon as a file is in good condition and you’ve included header material, you may wish to keep others from modifying that area. Doing so is simple, but there’s no quick-click service. The first step is to add a page break, as follows:
- Press Ctrl + Home to move the cursor to the very first position on page one of the file. The break should be the very first thing in the file.
- Click Show/Hide in the Paragraph group on the Home tab. This step isn’t technically required but showing the page break sign will make things simpler.
- Click the Design tab.
- In the Page Setup group, click the Breaks dropdown and choose Constant.
Insert a continuous area break. Image: Microsoft The section break need to be the first thing on the very first page. Image: Microsoft As you can see in the image above, the area break is the very first thing on
the document’s very first page, due to the fact that the cursor was at the beginning of that page when we placed the break. The position of this break allows us to format the header in a different way than the body of the document. If you’re not knowledgeable about section breaks, they apply to the material before the break and the only thing before this break is the header area. The next step will assist clarify why that matters. You may be questioning how this option can likewise apply to the footer if the break uses to the content before the break. Word does permit you to enter different header and footer content, however internally, Word sees the header and footer as the very same location. SEE: 6 Best Free Alternatives to Microsoft Word (TechRepublic)Step 2: How to secure the file in Word Our 2nd action
might seem a bit counterproductive, however it will all come together in
the end. Now, we need to secure the entire file,
including the header, footer, and the body. To protect the whole file, do the following: Click the File tab and after that click Details in the left pane. Click Protect File and pick Restrict
Editing from the dropdown. Word will return to the document and display the modifying alternatives in the Restrict Editing
Select the choice that limits modifying. Image: Microsoft At this point, you have actually safeguarded the entire document: If you stopped right now, no one would have the ability to modify anything. That’s not what we want. We need to unprotect the body of the file. SEE: How to Utilize Section Breaks to Control Format in Word(TechRepublic)Step three: How to unprotect the body of the file in Word If you’re not familiar
with Word protection, you may be questioning where we’re headed due to the fact that securing everything in the file wasn’t what we intended when we set out. We want to safeguard the file’s header but still have the ability to edit the body of the Word file. Here’s how to unprotect the body of the document: Select whatever in the file however the area header. To do so, place the cursor at the
start of the very first line in the document by
- pushing Ctrl+Home. Then, press Ctrl +Shift+ End to choose whatever however section break. In the Restrict Modifying pane, check the Everyone choice in the Exceptions area. In section 3, click Yes, Start Enforcing Security.
- When Word prompts you for a password, as displayed in the 2nd image below, get in”pw
- “two times and click OK. When applying this to your own work
- , you’ll want to use a more safe password. For demonstration functions, we want to keep whatever simple. Check the Everyone choice.
Image: Microsoft Go into a password so you still have access to the Word document. Image: Microsoft
Look for the opening and closing brackets at the beginning and ending, respectively, of the unprotected location. As the author, you will understand the password to the Word document so you can make modifications to the header and footer location. Others can modify the body of the file, but not the header and footer area.
This service isn’t user-friendly, and, unusually, Word does not use an alternative for securing just the header and footer. However, you can still do so utilizing this easy technique.
This short article was initially published in September 2022. It was upgraded by Antony Peyton in January 2025.