Customizing your Headers and Footers

Author-it's way of using Word AutoTexts for headers and footers lets you use different ones for different sections of your document - that's why they're attached to the media objects, like Cover Section and Chapter Section. So my Title Page (which uses settings from the Cover Section media object), can use different headers and footers than my Topics (which uses settings from the Chapter Section).

You can also use Word's Field functions to include information such as the page number, chapter name and/or document name, the document version, and so on… This enables you to reuse the same headers or footers across your documentation, and the information is inserted according to the Book/Section being published.

The Book Object itself contains information that is automatically added to the document's Properties window:

• the "Title" property stores the information in the Title field
• the "Super title" property stores the information in the Subject field
• the "Version" property stores the information in the Keywords field, and
• the "By line" property stores the information in the Author field.

This information can then be added to an autotext entry using the relevant field.

Let's say I have a number of products - all with different versions or release dates. I can enter this information in the "Version" property of each Book, and use the {Keywords} field in my autotext entry. When I publish each Book, the information from the "Version" property will be displayed in my headers or footers.

You can also add graphics (such as a company logo) to your autotext entry, but you must use inline graphics (not floating).

To Create a Header Autotext Entry

1. Open your Word publishing template (authorit.dot by default).

   Remember if you double-click the file from Windows Explorer you'll only open a document based on that template and not the template itself. You need to right-click and choose open - or open Word and select File > Open then select the template.

2. Choose View > Header and Footer.
3. Set up the content of your header or footer - including fields, graphics, etc.
4. Select all the header or footer area (Edit > Select All), including the final paragraph mark.
5. Select Insert > Autotext > Autotext from the main menu.
6. Save the selection as an Autotext and give it a name.

   IMPORTANT: Make sure that the selected template in the Look In field is authorit.dot (or your own template). Otherwise Word will add this to its Normal template.
   
   

7. Once you've saved your autotext, ensure you delete the header/footer from the screen and save your changes to the template.

   Your template when viewed should be entirely blank, with no headers/footers visible, and no text or styles applied - otherwise this can lead to formatting problems in your printed output.

Once you've created your autotext entry, you need to tell Author-it about it.

See Specifying Header and Footer Names in Author-it for details on adding or importing the autotext entry names.

See Setting Headers and Footers For Each Section for details on defining the headers and footers used by your Media Objects.