Keep Word Headers And Footers From Overlapping Your Document Text

When you find that your header is almost overlapping the first line of text in your Word document, you do not need to make your header smaller; you need to increase the distance of the header text from the rest of the content on the page. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Go to View | Print Layout.
2. If the page ruler is not visible, go to View | Ruler.
3. Go to View | Header And Footer.
4. Move your mouse along the white area of the vertical ruler until it becomes a double-headed arrow and a ToolTip appears that reads Bottom Margin.
5. Click and drag the bottom margin until your header text is the desired distance from your document text.

Sometimes a header or footer overlaps the margin so that it prints too close to the top or bottom edge of the paper. When this happens, you need to increase the distance of the header or footer text from the edge of the page. You could use your mouse to adjust the top margin as you did to adjust the bottom margin in steps 4 and 5 above, or you could use the Page Setup dialog box, which lets you adjust the header and footer at the same time. For example, to adjust the header and footer so that both are one inch from the edge of the paper, follow these steps:

1. Go to File | Page Setup.
2. Click the Layout tab.
3. Click the up arrow of the From Edge: Header box until you reach 1″.
4. Click the up arrow of the From Edge: Footer box until you reach 1″ and then click OK.