Headers, footers and page numbers on real pages in Write
How Write by Zaweba lays out headers, footers, page numbers, footnotes and sections on the page exactly as they will print and export to PDF.
Some writing apps treat a document as one long scroll of text and only think about pages when you hit print. That is fine for notes. It is not fine for a CV that has to fit on two sides, a report with page numbers in the footer, or an essay where the footnotes need to sit at the bottom of the right page.
Write by Zaweba works on real pages from the start. Headers, footers, page numbers, footnotes and sections are laid out on the page exactly as they will print and export to PDF. What you see while you type is what comes out of the printer.
Why seeing the page matters
Page layout is about more than looks. If you are writing a cover letter that must fit on one page, you need to know the moment it spills onto a second. If a table is going to split awkwardly across a page break, you want to see that while you can still do something about it. Real pages make those problems visible as you write rather than as a surprise at the end.
Page sizes cover the usual: A4, A5, Letter, Legal, envelopes and custom, in portrait or turned on its side. Pick the size first and everything else falls into place.
Headers and footers
A header runs along the top of each page and a footer along the bottom. They are where you put the things that repeat: your name on a CV, the title of a report, a school or club name, the date.
Set them once and they appear on every page. Because Write shows real pages, you can see them in place while you work, rather than wondering whether they will turn up in print.
Page numbers
Page numbers usually go in the footer. Put one in and it counts itself, so if you add a paragraph on page two and everything moves along, the numbers keep up. For anything longer than a few pages, they make a printed document much easier to use, especially in a meeting where someone says "on page seven".
Footnotes
Footnotes are small notes tied to a point in the text, shown at the bottom of the page. They are common in essays, reports and anything where you want to give a source or an aside without breaking the flow of the main text.
In Write they sit on the page as they will print. If the text they belong to moves to the next page, the footnote goes with it. Students in particular will find this saves a lot of fiddling, as footnotes in the wrong place are one of the more common things marked down.
Sections
Sections divide a document into parts that start on their own terms. A report might have a front part with the title and summary, then the main body, then an appendix. Marking those as sections keeps the structure clear on the page and in print, without splitting the work into separate files.
It is the kind of thing you only need now and then, but when a document grows past a few pages, it helps to know it is there. Sections also come through intact when you open a .docx that uses them.
From screen to paper and PDF
Because the layout on screen is the layout in print, printing and exporting hold no surprises. PDF export embeds the fonts and keeps the text as real text, so the PDF can be searched and copied from, and it looks the same on any computer that opens it. That matters for job applications, where you often send a PDF and have no idea what the other person will use to read it.
Write also keeps the work in .docx form, through its own .zawr files, so the same pages open in almost any other word processor. Write by Zaweba is free software for Windows 10 and 11, offline, with no account and no ribbon. If you want a word processor that shows you the page, this is it.
