Left, Center, and Right aligned text in same header

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rich Pasco
  • Start date Start date
R

Rich Pasco

I know this must be possible, but I sure can't figure out how.

I want to create page headers with some text left-aligned,
some text centered, and some text right-aligned. For example,
the document title on the left, the page number in the center,
and the section heading in the right, like this:

My Book page 13 Urgent Stuff

If I select any of the text in the header and click the alignment
icons in the toolbar, then the entire header is shifted.

What am I missing?

- Rich
 
By default, the Header and Footer styles have a center-aligned tab stop
centered between the margins and a right-aligned tab stop at the right
margin. If you have changed the document margins, you will need to move the
tab stops to the new correct location. Then type:

My Book<tab>page { PAGE }<tab>Urgent Stuff

where { PAGE } represents a PAGE field inserted using the Insert Page Number
button on the Header and Footer toolbar. For more, see
http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/HeaderFooter.htm

FWIW, the article you referenced takes much the most difficult approach to
tabs; see http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/SettingTabs.htm and
http://word.mvps.org/faqs/formatting/UsingRulers.htm for easier approaches.
 
If you find that setting the tabs is too much overhead, you can always
use a table with 3 cells and turn the border off.
 
This is an absurd way to achieve a simple task, but if you're going to do it
this way, you can equally well insert a single space between the parts,
nonbreaking spaces within the parts, and a line break at the end of the
(Justified) line, formatting the paragraph mark as Hidden.

But if you're going to try to center text with spaces, you might as well go
back to a typewriter.
 
Both methods are absurd given that Word provides a simple, easy way to
accomplish the task (using centered and right-aligned tabs, which are
already present by default in the Header and Footer styles or can be easily
inserted using the ruler), but note that neither method actually centers the
center text; it merely creates the same amount of space between the central
portion and those on the left and right. Sometimes this might be desirable,
but usually it is not what is wanted.

To see an example of this, set a center-aligned tab in the center of the
line and a right-aligned tab at the right margin (or apply the Header or
Footer style). Then enter the following text (which might be a typical
second-page header for a letter):

John Q. Sample<tab>August 9, 2008<tab>2

Now do the same thing with the sample text and either of our methods and
observe the distance in spacing. You can judge which would be the more
pleasing in a given situation.

Also, FWIW, I did not criticize you for attacking Microsoft. I do believe
that the behavior you're seeing with owner files is anomalous and therefore
unexpected. In Word 2003, I've frequently been surprised to see that Word
will actually release xxx.doc for editing after I've saved it as yyy.doc
(despite the fact that ~$xxx.doc is still open).
 
Suzanne said:
In Word 2003, I've frequently been
surprised to see that Word will actually release xxx.doc for editing
after I've saved it as yyy.doc (despite the fact that ~$xxx.doc is
still open).
Click to expand...

Actually if you save xxx.doc as yyy.doc the lock file for xxx.doc is
released in Word 2003 (but not in 2007). The lock file is not released when
you save xxx.doc as yyy.docx, and that is true for both Word versions. Is
this a fatal flaw? Of course not - at best it is a minor irritation, and
despite using Word 2007 for over a year, I would not have even been aware of
it had not the OP raised such a fuss about it.

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com

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