Ampersands in Headers and Footers

Summary: Add an ampersand to the text in a header or footer and you may be surprised that the ampersand disappears on your printout. There's a reason for that (and a way around it) as discussed in this tip. (This tip works with Microsoft Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, Excel 2003, and Excel 2007.)

One of the finishing touches often applied to a worksheet is to create headers and footers that print on every page. You may have noticed that some characters won't print in a header or footer. For instance, if you work at a company named Drury & James, and you put the company name in the header or footer, it will print as Drury James, omitting the ampersand.

The reason for this is because the ampersand signals, to Excel, that the next character is "special" and represents a code controlling some aspect of what is printed. To override the effect that the ampersand has, simply use two ampersands, as in Drury && James. When you do, the first ampersand is "swallowed" by Excel and the second one actually prints.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2910) applies to Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

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