Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. 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: Putting Headers and Footers On Multiple Worksheets.

Putting Headers and Footers on Multiple Worksheets

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated December 12, 2020)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021

1

One of the typical last touches to a worksheet before printing is to place headers or footers. This is very easy to do if you have only a worksheet or two in which to place the headers and footers. What if you have quite a few worksheets in the same workbook, and you want them all to have the same header and footer.

Actually, this isn't too hard to do, either. All you need to do is work with a group of worksheets as a single unit. Just follow these general steps:

  1. Decide which worksheets you want to have the same headers or footers.
  2. Select the first worksheet in the series (click the tab for that worksheet).
  3. Hold down the Shift key as you click on the tab for the last worksheet in the series. A range of worksheets should now be selected. Excel also adds the word [Group] to the title bar to indicate you have a group of worksheets selected.
  4. Set your header or footer as you normally would (as outlined in other issues of ExcelTips). Your changes are automatically made on all the sheets in the selected range.
  5. When done, select a single worksheet by clicking on its tab. (Click on the tab of a worksheet other than the first in the range if all the worksheets in the workbook are included in the group. If not all the worksheets are in the group, click on the tab of a worksheet not included in the group.)

That's it; you've now set the headers and footers of all the sheets to be identical.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (9731) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Putting Headers and Footers On Multiple Worksheets.

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. ...

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What is two more than 1?

2020-12-16 06:17:54

Richard Curtis

I prepare reports in Excel. All the report worksheets have headers and footers defined. One of the worksheets contains the data that is the main subject of the report. This worksheet is generated by export from another application to a comma-separated file which, naturally, does not have a header/footer definition. A few steps are necessary to integrate the new worksheet into the report, replacing the old worksheet.
1. Create the export.
2. Re-arrange the column order to match the report style.
3. Copy the export worksheet into the report workbook.
4. Select the existing data worksheet, hold Shift and select the new worksheet.
5. The headers and footers are automatically copied from the existing data worksheet to the new one.
6. Select the new worksheet in isolation and inspect the results.
7. Select the old worksheet and delete it.
8. Save the workbook.

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