Creating a Header

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 18, 2022)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

Excel allows you to add headers to your spreadsheet. Headers are nothing more than repeating text that appears at the top of every page of your printed spreadsheet. The beauty of headers is that they only have to be defined once, and then Excel places them on your printed pages automatically. To define a page header, do the following:

  1. Select Page Setup from the File menu. This displays the Page Setup dialog box.
  2. Make sure the Header/Footer tab is selected. (See Figure 1.)

    3. Figure 1. The Header/Footer tab of the Page Setup dialog box.

  3. Using the Header drop-down list, select any of the predefined headers you want used with your spreadsheet.
  4. Click on OK to close the Page Setup dialog box.

If you don't like any of the predefined headers in Excel, or if you have special header needs, you can create a custom header. You do that by following these steps:

  1. Select Page Setup from the File menu. This displays the Page Setup dialog box.
  2. Make sure the Header/Footer tab is selected.
  3. Click on the Custom Header button. This displays the Header dialog box. (See Figure 2.)

    4. Figure 2. The Header dialog box.

  4. In each of the three parts of the dialog box, enter the information you want to appear at the left, center, and right of the header.
  5. When you are through defining your footer, click on OK to close the Header dialog box.
  6. Click on OK to close the Page Setup dialog box.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2692) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Filling References to Another Workbook

When you create references to cells in other workbooks, Excel, by default, makes the references absolute. This makes it ...

Discover More

Removing Add-ins

Add-ins are used to extend Excel's capabilities in lots of different ways. If you want to get rid of an add-in ...

Discover More

Removing Everything Except Duplicates

Excel includes a built-in tool that will remove duplicate rows from a worksheet. If you want to remove non-duplicate ...

Discover More

Professional Development Guidance! Four world-class developers offer start-to-finish guidance for building powerful, robust, and secure applications with Excel. The authors show how to consistently make the right design decisions and make the most of Excel's powerful features. Check out Professional Excel Development today!

More ExcelTips (menu)

Putting Cell Contents in Footers

Referencing information between cells in a worksheet is a piece of cake using some elemental formulas. You cannot, ...

Discover More

Using Color in Headers and Footers

Applying color to the text in your headers and footers is a bit of a dream in some versions of Excel. Here's an overview ...

Discover More

Moving Part of a Footer Down a Line

Setting up a single footer line for your printouts is fairly easy. If you want to move part of the footer down a line so ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 1 + 8?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the menu interface (Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, or Excel 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.

Links and Sharing
OUR COMPANY
OUR PRODUCTS
OUR SITES
 

Copyright © 2025 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.