How to give the first page a different header

Turn on the different first page option for the header and footer in Write by Zaweba. The first page of the document then has its own header and footer, separate from the rest. Leave them empty for a clean title page, or put a full letterhead there while later pages carry only a short running header.

Why the first page is usually different

Look at most well-made documents and the first page stands apart. A report has a title page with no running header and no page number. A business letter has the full letterhead on page one, with the logo, address and phone number, and only a small name and page number on any page after that. An essay might show the student's name and the module on the first page only.

Without a separate first page, you would have to choose between a cluttered cover and bare later pages. The option solves that in one tick.

Setting it up step by step

Double-click the top margin of any page to start editing the header. In the header and footer options, tick different first page. Now go to page one and set up its header the way you want it, or delete everything in it to leave it blank. Then go to page two and set up the header that every later page will use.

The footer follows the same option. If you have page numbers in the footer, the first page footer can be left empty so the cover carries no number, while page two onwards shows them.

When you are done, double-click back in the body of the page to carry on writing.

A letterhead that only appears once

For a letter, put your full details in the first page header: name or organisation, address, phone and email. In the second page header, put just your name and a page number, or the recipient's name and the date, which is a traditional way of keeping the pages of a long letter together.

Save the result as your own starting document so you do not have to set it up again. Write's own UK letter template is another good starting point, and you can adjust its header in the same way.

Odd and even pages as well

The header options also include different odd and even pages. Use them for anything printed double-sided and bound, where you might want the document title on the left-hand pages and the chapter or section on the right. Both options can be on together, so a bound report can have a blank title page and then alternate headers from page two.

Checking the result

Write draws the screen with the same layout engine that drives printing and PDF export, so the first page you see is the first page you will get. Zoom out to whole page view to check the first two or three pages side by side. Look for a stray page number on the cover, or a letterhead that has crept onto page two.

If you open a .docx made elsewhere that already has a different first page set up, Write keeps it and shows it, and saving back as .docx writes it out the same way. That matters for templates handed out by schools and offices, which often depend on this setting.

A different first page is a small touch, but it is often the difference between a document that looks home-made and one that looks properly finished. In Write by Zaweba it is a single option.