Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Setting Header/Footer Margins.

Setting Header/Footer Margins

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 25, 2023)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365

2

When you create an Excel worksheet, you have the ability to change the margins used when the information in the worksheet is printed. This is done by choosing Page Setup from the File menu (Excel 2007) or Margins | Custom Margins from the Page Layout tab of the ribbon (Excel 2010 or a later version,) then making adjustments on the Margins tab. The default left and right margin values are .7 inches, unless you change them as described in other issues of ExcelTips.

If you want to make sure that Excel adjusts where it begins and ends the header and footer consistent with your overall margins, you need to follow these steps:

  1. Display the Page Layout tab of the ribbon.
  2. Click the small icon in the lower-right corner of the Page Setup group. Excel displays the Page Setup dialog box.
  3. Make sure the Header/Footer tab is displayed. (See Figure 1.)

    4. Figure 1. The Header/Footer tab of the Page Setup dialog box.

  4. Make sure the Align With Page Margins check box is selected.
  5. Click on OK.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (8068) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Setting Header/Footer Margins.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Working with Compressed Files and Folders via NTFS Compression

Windows 10 provides two ways to work with compressed files and folders. One way is to use NTFS compression, which is ...

Discover More

Counting All Characters

Need to know how many characters there are in a workbook? You can find out easily with the handy macro introduced in this ...

Discover More

Shading Rows with Conditional Formatting

If you need to shade alternating rows in a data table, you'll want to examine how you can accomplish the task with ...

Discover More

Create Custom Apps with VBA! Discover how to extend the capabilities of Office 365 applications with VBA programming. Written in clear terms and understandable language, the book includes systematic tutorials and contains both intermediate and advanced content for experienced VB developers. Designed to be comprehensive, the book addresses not just one Office application, but the entire Office suite. Check out Mastering VBA for Microsoft Office 365 today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Moving Part of a Footer Down a Line

Setting up a single footer line for your printouts is fairly easy. If you want to move part of the footer down a line so ...

Discover More

Putting Headers and Footers on Multiple Worksheets

You can easily create headers and footers for multiple worksheets by working with a selection set of the worksheets you ...

Discover More

First and Last Names in a Page Header

When you have a worksheet that includes a long list of names, you may want the first and last names on each page to ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 6 + 1?

2023-11-25 10:25:34

J. Woolley

@dave
Are you referring to Figure 1? What is wrong with it? How is the text different?

2023-11-25 09:25:46

dave

the photo doesn't match the text

This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.

Links and Sharing
OUR COMPANY
OUR PRODUCTS
OUR SITES
 

Copyright © 2026 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.