Did you know that your reports have a regular Header and Footer area as well as a First page Header and Footer option?   This may be used to create a separate header or footer for your first page or cover, or suppress a header or footer on that page.

The document that controls all your report headers and footers is accessed from File > Page Setup while a report is open.  After clicking File > Page Setup, click Customize for the Header/Footer document listed on the General tab there.  The document opens for editing.  Why is it’s body blank?  Because this document becomes the “base” document that handles the headers and footers and top and bottom page margins for your entire main report document.  At final print time, the program opens your header/footer document and then fills the body with any Attached Documents from your lower pane and your report body information, in the order you have them specified for inclusion.  That’s how your final report document is assembled.  Here are some common how-to questions.

How do I suppress the report header or footer on the first page, so my cover page doesn’t have one?
In addition to the general header and footer that applies to all pages, you have the ability to set up a separate first page header or footer for the final report document.  Therefore if you add a first page header or footer and leave those areas blank or empty, that will end up producing an empty header or footer for your first page.

• While a report is open, click File > Page Setup to access your layout settings.
• Click the Customize option for the Header/Footer document on the General tab.
• In the toolbar, click Insert > first page header or footer, whichever area is desired.
• That will access a separate first page header or footer section. Leave those areas blank to suppress them on the first page of your final report document.
• Now you have both a first page header or footer section, along with the regular header or footer section that prints on all remaining pages beyond the first one.  Use the Insert menu to access the appropriate area for further editing.

When I customize the Header/Footer doc, I don’t see any header or footer, but one prints.  If the Header/Footer document appears to be totally empty, how do I access my regular header and footer to edit them?
If the document was previously set up so that there are First Page header or footer areas that are blank, then you may not see anything on the first page of the document when you edit it.  Since there’s usually nothing in the body of the base document itself, multiple pages don’t display and therefore you just don’t see the regular Header or Footer that would appear on following pages even though they are really there.

• While editing the document, use the Insert menu in the toolbar to access any particular header or footer area as needed.  For instance, click Insert > Header or Insert > Footer to access the general header and footer areas.  Click Insert > First Page header/footer to access those areas if present.
• When accessing the regular Header or Footer, if needed, note that the software will automatically add a temporary second page so you can see and edit them. When you exit header or footer areas, it will normally remove the second temporary page automatically so you don’t end up with a blank page printing at the beginning of your report. Your header and footer information is still saved in the document, which you can see by accessing them using Insert or by printing or previewing a report.
• Note that if for some reason you do have an extra unwanted blank page printing at the beginning of your report, you may have some invisible character(s) like a space ( · ) or carriage return ( ¶ ) in the body of your header/footer document creating page information.  An easy way to check while editing the header/footer document is to use View > Display control codes to “see” such invisible characters.  If any are present, delete them from the body.  After saving and exiting the document, preview to verify the problem is resolved.

I decided I want to use the same regular header and footer for the first page of a document. But a separate first page header or footer is already present. How do I get my regular header or footer to print on the first page again?
Although once added, there’s no way to remove a first page header/footer from a document, you may simply copy the regular header/footer information into them, so it appears in both places.

• While editing the document, use the Insert menu to access the regular header or footer area.
• Highlight the contents of that area and Edit > Copy.
• Next use the Insert menu to access the first page header or footer area.
• While in the desired area, Edit > Paste the information there. Now you have the same header or footer on all pages.