I need help with removing the header & footers on the last page in word 2010

[Moondoggy]

I have an existing document that already has a cover page with its own headers and footers and additional pages with headers and footers on each page. What I would like to do is create a back cover page and remove the headers and footers from that page. I tried to figure how to do this in Word 2010 but I'm stumped. Can anyone tell me how to remove the headers and footers from that last, blank cover page? Thanks!

 

[macropod]

Put your existing header/footer content into fields coded along the lines of:
{IF{PAGE}<{NUMPAGES} "existing header/footer content"}

Note: The field brace pairs (i.e. '{ }') for the above example are all created in the document itself, via Ctrl-F9 (Cmd-F9 on a Mac); you can't simply type them or copy & paste them from this message. Nor is it practical to add them via any of the standard Word dialogues.

 

[Moondoggy]

Thanks your for the reply but I'm a bit confused and need some additional help.

I went the page where my first header was located. At that point I right clicked my mouse and then clicked on edit header. Prior to where the existing header began I pressed CTRL-F9 to get the first set of braces. I then began typing the command and each time a set of braces was needed I created a new set with CTRL-F9. After I added the logic I then cut and pasted the existing header content between the two double quotes and this was followed by the trailing brace that was created the first time I pressed CTRL-F9. So, after double checking my command string to the command string that you provided I noted that they were identical in format but when I closed the header down the header looked like the command string instead of the original header on all pages in the document. Either I have something wrong in the command string or perhaps this command is not valid in Word 2010. Here's what my header looks like:

{IF{PAGES}<{NUMPAGES} "MY HEADER STRING"}

I think that I carefully followed your instructions but again, it's not working so if you can tell me what I'm doing wrong I'd appreciate your additional assistance. Thanks.

 

[macropod]

The appropriate way to do this would be to first put a pair of double-quotes around your header content, then select that content, including the double-quotes, and press Ctrl-F9. That would give you:
{"MY HEADER STRING"}
Position the cursor between {" and press Ctrl-F9. That will give you:
{{ }"MY HEADER STRING"}
Position the cursor between {{ and press Ctrl-F9. That will give you:
{{ }{ }"MY HEADER STRING"}
Then complete the field code, so you get:
{{IF{PAGE}<{NUMPAGES} "MY HEADER STRING"}
When done, select the field and press F9 to update it. If the field code remains visible, pressing Alt-F9 will toggle it off.

Note: there is no {PAGES} field - it's a {PAGE} field.

 

[Moondoggy]

Thanks again for the reply.

Prior to your updated post I actually found what I was searching for right in Word itself. What I did was place my cursor below the text on the page where I wanted to terminate the current headers and footers and I then selected Page Layout, then selected Breaks and then selected Section Break- Next Page. This created a new section on a newly created page. The existing headers and footers were still showing up in that newly created section but it was a simple task to edit them and remove the text so I had a completely blank back cover page. That being said, I still want to thank you for your help.

 

[macropod]

When you do that, any layout changes as a result of edits ahead of the section break won't be flowed through to the last page. That could mean you'll end up with the penultimate page having just a few lines of text. That's OK if the content on the last page is logically different from what goes before (e.g. an index or bibliography), but it's usually not OK if it continues an existing paragraph or chapter.

 

[Moondoggy]

When you do that, any layout changes as a result of edits ahead of the section break won't be flowed through to the last page. That could mean you'll end up with the penultimate page having just a few lines of text. That's OK if the content on the last page is logically different from what goes before (e.g. an index or bibliography), but it's usually not OK if it continues an existing paragraph or chapter.

Thanks for the explanation and the further tutorial on how to do this. I tried this on a backup copy of my document using your second set of instructions it worked great. In my case creating a new section on a new page also works equally well. In my document, each page consists of 3 like tables per page My concern was what would happen if I added additional tables to the documents which would increase the page count as I didn't want the new tables to spill over onto the back cover page or appear on new page after the back cover if that was a possibility in Word.. The method you outlined would satisfy my needs but in this document, the new section method where the new section is the back cover page works the same way. Anyway, I wanted to thank you again for posting a very informative solution to my problem and I intend to add these instructions to my collection of HOW TO's as this was very slick. Your help was most appreciated..

 

[macropod]

Thanks for the feed-back. FWIW, you could get the same result using the field coding and a manual page break instead of a Section break and disconnecting the last Section's header/footer from what goes before.