How to add header and footer in Google Docs (remove Google docs header and footer)

Do you want to make your document clearer? Consider adding a footer. It is important that you understand what headers and footers are if you use Google Docs to create professional-quality documents and reports.

• To add header or footer in Google Docs, click Insert menu –> select Headers & Footers –> Choose header or footer –> Add the text for header or footer.
• You can also use Keyboard shortcuts to add header and footer in Google Docs.
• Remove header or footer in Google Docs: Click on the ” Options ” drop down –> Select “Remove header” or “Remove Footer”.

The headers and footers are used to save specific details about a document, such as an author’s name, the number of pages, and manuscript revisions, among other things. The reason Google Docs users look for alternative headers is because of this.

In another way, Headers and footers in Google Docs are the best tools to display descriptive information of your long Google Docs document quickly and to set out different parts of your Google Docs document. Header and footer are primarily used to add page numbers.

But in addition to this, a header or footer can also contain information like document name, date and/or time you created or revised the Google Docs document, author name, a graphic, a draft, or revision number. Let’s jump in to know the best ways to add and remove headers and footers in Google Docs.

What are Headers and footers in Google Docs

The header is a section of the Google Docs document that you will find appearing in the top margin, while the Footer is a section of the Google Docs document that you will see in the bottom margin.

Headers are usually used for headings and Footers are generally allotted for page numbers or footnotes. The text you will enter in the header or footer section appears on every page of the Google Docs document.

• How to open Docx files in Google docs (Google docs to word)

How to add header and footer in Google Docs?

Follow the below steps on your Desktop or PC

1. Fire up Google Docs on the browser
2. Open a new Google Docs document or the existing one to which you want to add a header or footer.
3. Now Click Insert > Headers & Footers, and then you can choose either “Header” or “Footer” to insert it into your document.

How to add Header in Google Docs?

• If you click on the “Header”, Header section will be opened and the cursor moves to the header section. You can now type your text in the “Header Section”. 

• When you’re finished, press the Esc key on your keyboard to close the header or footer.
• The header you type on the first page also appears on all subsequent pages in your Google Docs document.
• If you want to add a different heading to a particular page in Google Docs document, you can do it by choosing the “Different First Page” option.
• To do this, head up to the bottom of the header and tick the checkbox next to “Different First Page”.
• If you want to change the header and footer margins, or layout, the “Options” dropdown at the right corner of the “Header and Footer” tab will let you do that.
• Click on the “Options” dropdown and then choose “Header format”.
• This will open up a window that allows you to alter the “Header” and “Footer” margin. 
• By default, this change will get applied to all the pages in your Google Docs document. If you want to apply it to the current page or for some particular pages, choose either “different first page” or “different odd or even” or even both.
• Once you customized the settings, click “Apply”.

How to add Footers in Google Docs?

Unlike other users, Google doesn’t automatically insert footers into your Google Doc, but you can manually insert them following these steps.

So, How do you add a footer in Google Docs?

• Click Insert > Headers & Footers > Footer 

• It will open up the “Footer Section”.
• Type the specific text you wish to insert and then press “ESC” on your keyboard.

• You can customize the “Footer” section as you do in the “Header section”. 

Even after you close the header or footer section, it will still be visible, but it will be locked. To edit it again, just click anywhere on the header or footer, and it will become unlocked.

Well done! You have now added a footer to your Google Doc. You can now enter whatever text you need in your footer.

To close the footer, find the “ESC” button in the top left-hand corner of your keyboard. You can also exit the footer by clicking anywhere in the body of your document.

Keyboard shortcuts to add headers and footers in Google Docs

You can easily add header and footer in Google Docs using keyboard shortcuts.

Keyboard shortcuts to add Header

• Press and hold Ctrl+Alt and press the O, and then H key for Windows or ChromeOS machine.
• Press and hold Ctrl+Cmd and press the O, and then H key for a Mac.

Keyboard shortcuts to add Footer

• Press and hold Ctrl+Alt and press the O, and then F key for windows or ChromeOS machine.
• Press and hold Ctrl+Cmd and press the O, and then F key for Mac.

How to add header and footer in Google Docs on Mobile?

On your mobile (Both Android & iOS), you can able to add header and footer in Google Docs using the below instructions.

1. Open the Docs app on your mobile.
2. Open the Google Docs document and tap on the Pencil icon that is present on the bottom right corner of the mobile screen to edit the document.
3. Tap on three dots from the top right corner –> Enable the Print layout option.

4. Tap on the extreme top of the document to add the header text and then you can tap on the bottom of the page to add the footer text.

Formatting text in a header or footer

There are various formatting options available in Google Docs that allow you to format text in headers and footers. All you have to is just select the typed text of the header or footer and choose formatting options from the “Format” tab.

Add page numbers to a header or footer

One of the topmost uses of the “Header or Footer” section is inserting “Page number”. With Google Docs, page numbers can be attached to each page automatically as headers or footers.

If you want to display the word Page as part of the page number, you will need to type Page at the desired location in the header or footer.

• Click on the Google Docs document’s Header or Footer.
• Place the insertion point where you want the page number to appear. 
• You can simply type the starting number or customize it by using the “Page number” format.
• Click Insert > Page number.

• Select the desired page number format.
• The page number will be displayed in the Google Docs document.

Or, you can also follow the below steps to know how to add page numbers to a footer in Google Docs?

Step 1: Select the “option” feature at the bottom of your document.

Step 2: Now choose the “page numbers” option, the page number dialog box will appear on the screen.

Step 3: In this step add relevant numbering, you have two options. The first is the “Start at” option where you need to add a relevant page number that best fits your content. And the second is the “Continue from the previous section” option. As the name represents itself, by choosing this option you can continue numbering from the previous list button.

Step 4: Once either one of the following actions is done, click the “apply” button.

How do you change the starting page number in google docs?

To change the starting page number in Google Docs,

• Place the insertion point on the Header or Footer of the Google Docs document.
• Click Insert > Page number > More options
• This will open up a window that allows you to change the starting page number in Google Docs.

• Change the “Start at” number to your desired number and click apply.

How to display page count in Google Docs Footer

You can display how many pages your Google Docs document has  in the header or footer of your Google Docs document. To do this,

• Place the insertion point after the page number and then type “of”.
• Now click Insert > Page number > page count.

• The page count of the entire document will appear in the Google Docs document after the page number.

Google docs different header and footer on each page

If you add a header or footer in the Google Docs document, it will automatically be displayed on all the pages in the document. But what if you want to use a separate header and footer for each page or a set of pages in Google Docs? 

Even though there is no straightway you can add separate headers for each page in Google Docs document, there are few workarounds you can customize headers and footers in Google Docs.

Let’s say you are writing a book in Google Docs having several chapters and you want each chapter to have the chapter name in its header. Eventually, you have to use a different header for several sets of pages.

That is where section break comes into the picture. Section break divides your Google Docs document into sections and each section will behave as an independent document for formatting. 

Thus adding a section break before the header or footer will let you add Google docs different header and footer on each page. To add different Headers and footers for pages in Google Docs, you have to add a section break and then cut the link between the successive sections by unchecking the ‘Link to the previous option. 

How to add different headers in Google Docs?

To add different headers in Google Docs, first, insert the header section.

• Once you add “Headers” in the Google Docs document, you can see the “options” tab at the right end of the “Header” section.
• Click on Options > Header format 
• A new window will be opened.
• Under the Layout section, check the boxes before “Different odd & even”

• If you want the first page to be different from the rest of the Google Docs document, you can also check the box before “Different first page”.

How to remove Google docs Header?

If you want to remove the added Google Docs header from your Desktop or PC, the “Options” dropdown at the right corner of the “Header” tab will let you do that. To remove the Google Docs header,

• Click Options > Remove header

• This will remove the Google Docs header and get rid of header in google docs.

How to remove Google docs Header and Footer on Mobile?

To get rid of header and footer in google docs on mobile, you can follow the below quick steps

1. Open the Docs app on your mobile (Both Android and iOS)
2. Open the document –> Tap on the Pencil icon to edit the document.
3. Simply, delete all the header text and footer text.

How to make different footers in Google Docs?

The footer of a document is a tiny piece at the bottom of each page. It’s frequently used to show firm information or copyright information. The footer can also be used to denote the current portion of the content in larger documents.

Changes to the footer on one page will automatically update the footer on all other pages in the section. A modification to the footer will update all a document’s pages if no sections are defined.

Follow the below-given steps to learn to create different footers for your Google Docs.

Step 1: Go to “Insert” and select the “Headers & Footers” option in your document.

Step 2: To choose your footer layout, check the box:

Different first page: On the initial page of the document or section, use various footers.

Link to previous: If you want to use a different header or footer for that section, uncheck the box.

With this above-mentioned way, you can make different footers in Google Docs.

In addition to this, you can also make use of other options such as “Footer Format,” “Page numbers,” and  “Remove Footer.” Now let us discuss how to use each of the options one by one.

Let us begin with how to use the “Footer Format” option in Google Docs.

As with the body of your text, you can also modify the format of your footer using all of the same formatting options. If you want to change the font or alignment of the text within your footer, use the toolbar at the top of the screen. In any case, if you want to adjust the footer margins, follow these steps.

Step 1: Select the “option” feature at the bottom of your document.

Step 2: Now choose the “Footer format” option, the header & footer format dialog box will appear on the screen.

Step 3: Adjust the footer size and click “Apply”

Once you click on “Headers & footers,” a pop-up box will appear on your screen. Enter your preferred margin size in the box next to “Footer.” After clicking the “Apply” button, the footer size will be changed automatically.

Note: In the right-hand corner of the “Footer” box, you can click the blue “Options” button to skip step one.

Congratulations, you have successfully added footers to your Google Docs!

How to remove Google docs Footer?

If you want to remove the added Google Docs Footer from your Desktop or PC, the “Options” dropdown at the right corner of the “Footer” tab will let you do that. To remove Google Docs Footer,

• Click Options > Remove Footer

• This will remove the Google Docs Footer.

How do I remove a header from one page?

To remove a header from one page,

• First, double click the header or footer area to make it active for editing. 
• Click Option > Header Format.
• Select the “Different first-page” option under the layout section and click apply.
• Now click Options > Remove footer.
• The header will be removed from the current page.

And voila! You can now easily add or remove Google Docs headers and footers to display descriptive information of your long Google Docs document.