Having the same footer on every page of a Google Doc doesn’t require many changes. You will most likely use the footer to number the pages and keep the document organized.
But what if you want to add a footer in Google Docs to a single page? Doing so will require a bit of adjustment on your part. But don’t worry, this process is relatively simple and won’t take more than 30 seconds of your time.
In this article, we will provide all the necessary instructions. Additionally, you will also learn how to find page numbers in Google Docs and how to have different headings within the same document.
How to Add a Footer to a Single Page in Google Docs
It takes time to figure out how to add a separate footer in Google Docs. Going around and around design settings that aren’t that easy to customize doesn’t help. Mainly, because there is no option available to add separate footer for different pages in this app.
Fortunately, there is a way to fix this. It involves inserting a section break.
Section breaks in Google Docs
Section breaks are useful when you want to pide the document you’re working on into multiple sections. This is because all Google Docs pages share the same formatting by default: margins, page numbers, footers, and headers.
If you want to change any of these elements, you will need to insert a section break. That way, each section will act as a separate document and you can change anything you want there. For that reason, we’ll first show you how to insert a section break, which will take us directly to adding a footer to a single page in Google Docs.
Follow the steps below to insert a section break and then customize your footer:
- Launch Google Docs and open the file you want to edit.
- Locate the page where you want to add a footer.
- Place the cursor right at the bottom of the previous page, just after the last sentence. Remember: the previous page, not the one you want to add a footer to (the current one).
- Click on Insert in the top menu.
- From the dropdown menu, choose the Break option and then click Section break (next page).
- Now you will see that your cursor has moved to the next page. You’ll also potentially see a line break at the bottom of the previous page.
- Go to the bottom of the page where the cursor was and click on the footer.
- In the footer options that appear, be sure to uncheck the box Link to previous option. This will configure your footer to behave as a separate document; you can format it as you like.
- Add content to your footer. Once you’re done, press the Esc button on your keyword to close it.
You have now customized the footer settings for a page. You can scroll up and see that the footers are different for the current and previous page. However, on the next page, your footer will remain the same. You will have to go over the steps again and apply them to each page as necessary.
Note: If you see a section break line appear after applying Step 6, you can hide it by doing the following:
- Head to the top Google Docs menu and click View.
- Uncheck the Show section breaks option.
Now you will no longer be able to see the section breaks.
Additional FAQs
Here are some questions you may find helpful about footer customization settings in Google Docs.
How to insert a footer in Google Docs
Inserting a footer in Google Docs is as easy as it gets. This tool can be very useful for adding information to your page or adding page numbers, in fact.
Follow these easy steps to insert a footer into your Google Document:
• Launch Google Docs on your computer and open a new or existing document.
• Click on the Insert top menu section.
• Go to the Header and footer section and choose the Footer option.
This will now create a new footer on all your Google Docs pages.
Another way to add footers is using keyboard shortcuts:
For Windows, hold down the Ctrl and Alt buttons, then press the “o” key and then the “f” key.
For Mac, hold down the Control and Command button, press the “o” key, and then the “f” key.
These commands will create a new footer or move to existing ones.
How do you find the page number in Google Docs?
Organizing your pages by adding numbers to them is essential when working with longer documents. Google Docs doesn’t automatically number pages as you type them, so you’ll have to turn this feature on manually.
The only way to see page numbers by default is through the scrolling sidebar on the right of the screen. As you scroll through the document, you will see that the bar displays a small black box with the page number you are currently on. You’ll see something like “5 of 17,” which means you’re on the fifth page of seventeen existing pages.
To add page numbers to your document so that they are visible on the paper, follow these steps:
• Open the Google document to which you want to add page numbers.
• Go to the top menu and click on the “Insert” section.
• When you hover over the “Page Numbers” section, it will show you some options. Choose from the four available layouts how you want the numbers to display on the page.
• (Optional) Format the numbers by bolding them, underlining them, or applying any other text editing options you want.
How to have different headers in Google Docs
As with footers, Google Docs does not have an option that simply allows you to have different headers on different pages of your document. That is why you will have to apply the steps that will first insert a section break between two pages and then add a new header. The section break will “break” your document’s formatting settings and allow you to change them as you wish.
Follow the steps below to insert a section break and then customize your header:
• Launch Google Docs and open the file you want to edit.
• Locate the page to which you want to add a header.
• Place the cursor right at the end of the previous page, just after the last sentence. Remember: the previous page, not the page you want to add a header to (the current one).
• Click on Insert in the top menu.
• From the drop-down menu, choose the Break option and then click Section break (next page).
• Now you will see that your cursor has moved to the next page. You’ll also potentially see a line break at the bottom of the previous page.
• Go to the bottom of the page where the cursor was and click on the header.
• In the header options that appear, be sure to uncheck the box Link to previous option. This will configure your header to behave as a separate document; you can format it as you like.
• Add content to your header. Once you’re done, press the Esc button on your keyword to close it.
Can a footer be different on each page?
If you follow and repeat the steps in “How to Add a Footer to a Single Page in Google Docs,” you can set your footers to be different on each page.
You will first need to insert a section break that will allow you to make formatting changes to your document. Next, you’ll need to add or edit your existing footer and then repeat these steps for each page.
It can take a while if you have tons of pages and each one needs to have a separate footer. But for now, this is the only way to solve this problem.
Modify Google Docs according to your needs
You cannot add footers to a single page in Google Docs through the header and footer layout settings. Fortunately, there is a workaround, which we described above. All you need to do is insert a section break that will allow you to format your page as if it were a separate document. Then, simply add content to your footer and you’re done.
You also learned how to modify your headers in the same way. Now you won’t have to waste time figuring out how to set footers and headers differently for each page.
