Word 2007 Footer Height

[Jim]

I want to change the amount of space allocated to the footer in Word 2007 so
that I can get more body text on a page.

If I open headers and footers and click in the header, I can move the dashed
blued line defining the header height by clicking in the header area and then
pushing the bottom end of the white bar in the vertical ruler up or down to
move the dashed blued line that defines the space allocated to the header.

However, if I click in the footer I cannot move the dashed blue line up or
down. If I push on the top end of the white bar in the vertical ruler the
text in the footer moves up and down (not the dashed blue line defining the
footer height).

A clue to the problem may be that when I am in the header and hover the
mouse over the top of the white bar in the vertical ruler, the words "Top
Margin" appear, and if I hover over the bottom of the white bar, the words
"Bottom Margin" appear. Either of those can be adjusted in the header. If I
am in the footer and hover the mouse over the top of the white bar the words
"Top Margin" appear, but if I hover the mouse over the bottom of the white
bar (which appears to extend to the very bottom of the page) no words appear,
and I cannot move the bottom of the white bar in vertical ruler (when I am in
the footer).

Is there some other way to adjust the height of the area reserved for the
footer in Word 2007?
Thanks.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

You can change the header and footer margin on the Layout tab of Page Setup
(click the dialog launcher for Page Setup at the bottom of the Page Setup
chunk of the Page Layout tab). But be aware that the header margin defines
where the header starts (that is, the distance from the top of the page),
not where it ends. A header can expand to accommodate whatever text it
contains, pushing the document body down if necessary.

The representation of the header and footer boxes is inconsistent. The
header is correctly represented as spanning the distance between the header
margin and the top margin, but the footer is shown spanning the distance
between the bottom of the page and the top of a line of text at the footer
margin. The footer, however, does expand upward just as the header expands
downward.

For more on headers and footers in general, see
http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/HeaderFooter.htm

 

[Jim]

Thank you Suzanne. A very helpful response, as always from you.

I think there may have been a little bit of operator error on my part as
well. The pages in question have a number of continuous section breaks and a
next page section break at the end of each page. I now have that straigtened
out and now the mouse can move the footer height up and down (as one would
expect).

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Yes, when you're dealing with more than one section on a page, both Word and
operator can become confused.